Brooding Impostor
by TalysAlankil
Summary: The sequel to Brooding Lust. Same principle, different Sue — this time with Ariana Seagull. Adapted from the story Dalton Vampire, although Vampire Queen is used as backstory.
1. Prologue — Dearly Beloved

**Author's note** : This is the sequel to another fic of mine, _Brooding Lust_. I think it's understandable on its own, but I would still advise you to check out _Brooding Lust_ first. Thanks for reading !

* * *

><p>Damien Thorn was running away from the hospital in Chicago. As fast as he could.<p>

It all had started a short while ago, when that girl had been placed in Richard and Ann's care. Apparently, the Seagull family, the girl's foster family, had had to go away for some reason, and they had asked Damien's uncle and aunt to take care of their daughter. After that… it was all a blur. Damien recalled few and less of the days that had followed. The only thing that remained in his mind was that the girl asked him to be her boyfriend, and that he had _wanted_ to say no. From there, it was as if he'd lost control of his own body, as he was kissing her — and maybe worse, he couldn't be sure — feeling disgust all the while.

Until this night. Well, it was almost morning now, but that night had been decisive. He didn't remember the circumstances that had led them to the hospital, but something had snapped in him there when the doctor spoke of running some tests on him. He didn't know why, but he'd felt scared of those tests. That fear had let him regain control, and when the girl had tried to hug him, he'd reacted impulsively — pushing her away as best as he could. _Anything __to __keep __her __away __from__ me_. He'd yelled at her — he couldn't even remember the words, but he knew he'd been awful.

Now he was almost shamed by his actions, but he knew he'd do it all over again. He had lost control of himself once, and would do anything to make sure it wouldn't happen again. _Anything __to __keep __her __away_.

Damien kept running, until he heard a car coming. It came from roughly where the hospital was, and Damien immediately hid in a shadowy alley. It might have been his parents, and the girl might have been with them. _Anything __to __keep __her __away_.

He started when he felt a hand on his shoulder, from behind. Spinning around, his heart racing, he was struck by relief, almost painfully so, when he saw the blonde hair and grey eyes. So relieved, in fact, that he couldn't resist taking the boy in his arms.

"Mark." His cousin, Mark, who was as close to him as a brother. "I'm so sorry. For everything." He wasn't exactly sure what he was sorry _for_, but he knew he'd wronged Mark in his time with the girl. Wronged him _horribly_.

Mark returned the embrace, sighing — he too was visibly relieved. "It's all right. You weren't yourself." They stood there for a short while, until a voice came from the street. A melodious voice — too melodious, almost… auto-tuned.

"Damien ? Where are you, Damien honey ? I forgive you everything ! I love you ! And I know you love me !"

Damien's foot twitched slightly, as if his body wanted to go back to the voice's origin, but he held tight to Mark, and kept control. But even as he did, realization struck him. "She'll find me" he said. "No matter what we do, she will. I know it." Mark let go of him and looked him in the eyes, frowning.

"What do you mean ?"

"There's something wrong with her. I don't know what exactly, but I'm sure of it. I saw it once — her eyes, Mark. They're _red_. That blue color is just due to contact lenses she wears. And it's not just that. You're right, I _wasn't_ myself. I watched what happened, but I didn't consciously _do_ it all. I know she'll find me, somehow."

Mark shook his head. "I'll help you, we can keep you safe —"

"No." Damien breathed in, making sure his voice wouldn't indicate his fear for what he intended to say. "Mark, I want you to go. Run. She'll find me eventually, might as well end it here."

"What ? Damien, no —"

"Go ! You know this city as much as I do. You can leave if you go over there." There was a staircase leading to the roofs at the end of the alleyway. "Go, and whatever you hear or see, don't come back."

"Come with me, Damien !"

Damien gently pushed him in the opposite direction. The voice grew louder and louder — she probably knew where he was already, and was intrigued that he did not run to her at once. "Go, Mark." _And__ if __we __don't __meet __again__… __Goodbye_.

As the voice grew even louder, the blonde finally nodded and ran away, to the other end of the alleyway. Damien sighed, then forced himself to look happy as he faced the girl. _I__ can't __keep __her __away __from__ me, __but __I'll __do__ anything __to __keep __her __away __from__ those __I __love_.

"Damien, what are you doing here ? It's a really ugly place, not at all suited for a sexah boy like you." She sounded cheerful, but some… darkness was lying underneath. He couldn't tell if it was fear, anger, or something else entirely.

"Stop it. Don't come closer !"

"But, Damien… I love you. And _you_ love _me_." She insisted on that second part in a very odd fashion.

Something in him wanted to run to her, tell her that yes, he loved her. He shut up that part of himself — which wasn't really a part of _himself_, more like another person that shared his body. "I don't love you. I meant every word I said back there. I don't love you. You forced me to love you, and it's not at all the same thing."

The girl's eyes opened wide, and he could glimpse part of her red irises, just like he had told Mark. _Mark.__ I__ hope __you _have _gone __away_. Then the girl's expression changed absolutely. None of her cheerfulness was there, only replaced by the look of a predator studying a prey. "I see. So you betray me." She sighed. "Here I was thinking you and I would last forever. But if I can't have you, Damien, nobody will have you."

The girl jumped on him, faster than he thought possible. She opened her mouth, baring teeth that shone, despite the absence of light in the alleyway. _Sharp_ teeth. And… Were those fangs ? Once more, she moved, too fast for Damien to make out her head. Those fangs buried deep in his neck. One last word died in his throat, before he lost consciousness.

Her name. _Ariana_.


	2. Chapter 1 — The Promised Beginning

"Good bye, dad" said Ariana Erehaha SilverDove Seagull as she was hugging her father. He was Aro Volturi, and as Ariana understood, he was the King of Vampires. Or something close to it. Ariana had never been allowed at court, for her own protection, as he said — other vampires wanted her dead. For Ariana was a half, born of a human woman and a vampire father. And her dad had said many vampires feared the halfs.

A small, blonde girl, came to hug Ariana as well. "We'll miss you, girl !"

"I'll miss you _more_, Jane." Jane was Ariana's best friend among the vampires — of course, she only knew so many vampires anyway, but still, Jane had been a close friend of her since birth. Jane looked fourteen, and usually acted as one, but she had been fourteen for a _long_ time, as far as Ariana understood. "You too, Alec." Alec was Jane's twin brother, although they looked nothing alike ; he too had watched over Ariana her whole life long.

"Do I really have to leave Chicago ?" Ariana asked her father for the hundredth time.

He sighed, but smiled while doing so. "I told you. What happened to your boyfriend is a tragedy, but if you stay around, someone might think you're responsible. You have to go."

She nodded, on the verge of tears. "I want to come with you, back to Rome. I want it _so_ much."

"Me too, Ari, but you can't. It's not safe for you there." he patted her on her shoulder. "Come on now, you have to go. You'll miss your plane !"

She left, if only to be sure she wouldn't cry, and boarded the plane. A few hours, a flight and a bus ride later, she arrived at her destination. A small town, but it looked cute so far. Westerville, Ohio.

* * *

><p>The last seven months had been a blur to Louisa Anesco. Since the battle against the Cullen coven, she had led many raids and coordinated even more. Of course, that <em>is<em> the duty of the leader of the Special Cases SHS Unit, a secret paramilitary force preventing the supernatural forces to harm humanity.

Alice Cullen's informations had proven invaluable. The vampire had surrendered — not like she had really had the choice — and Louisa had slowly extracted her knowledge of her coven's network across all of North America. The Cullens had been close to ruling the vampires on the continent, and Louisa had been able to find many of their allies or subordinates thanks to Alice's informations.

What was infuriating, however, was the covens who had escaped. Many had vanished, having likely heard of their masters' demise. The Unit was tracking them down, but so far, almost half of the covens Alice had told them about were still nowhere to be found. Many of them high-ranking.

Still, it was satisfying, being able to finally act on a large scale. Usually, the Unit learned about a coven mostly by chance, and tried to take them down or recruit them before destroying any evidence of their existence. Destroying the head of those vampires and having access to their knowledge thanks to Alice had changed that — they now knew a lot more about the vampires they were fighting. Well, in North America, at least.

Even in Europe, however, the situation had changed. The Volturi had indirectly participated in the battle. They had grown careless enough that vampires had been spotted, sparkling in the sunlight in Rome, their home city. Even though they had gone back to hiding after the battle, many vampires were now watched by her agents. And more important than that — Alice had told them the location of the Volturi headquarters, and one of her own agents, Jacob Black, had confirmed the information. Louisa didn't dare attack them at their heart yet, but it was still highly important. And she was planning.

Another information she had on the Volturi was a name. Ariana, adopted by the Seagull coven, a Volturi affiliate located in Illinois. She remembered that coven — she'd sent a team after them years before, who had not managed to kill them all but had managed to force them into hiding. Most of that coven was now dead in the battle against the Cullens. Ariana was, according to Alice, the granddaughter of one of the Volturi leaders — Nickalas. She could be used as leverage… if they could find her.

It was early May, in the evening, when she got the call.

"Parere" she said, trying to repress a yawn. Agent Parere — the agent who gives birth, and the agent who obeys — was her codename within the Unit. Only a few people knew her real name, let alone her identity or her past.

"Agent Movere, ma'am." She suddenly felt very awake — Movere was in charge of finding Ariana Seagull. "I have found something."

"You have ? I'm listening."

"Well, it's not much… It might actually be a decoy or a false alarm, but… An Ariana Seagull took a plane in Chicago. To Westerville, in Ohio. Even better, a murder happened earlier today, and it seems a vampire did it."

Louisa frowned. She'd expected the Seagulls to believe they were free of the Unit's attention — since most of their coven was dead. But to grow that careless ? "You have to make sure it's the right one."

"I'm doing that right now. I've got the airport's security camera recordings. Should I send them to you ?"

"Yes." She rushed to get her laptop and turn it on. A minute later, the file was there. _One__ of __the __advantages__ of __using __a __private __network __built __partially __with __magic_. She grabbed her phone back. "Any other informations ? When she checked in, for instance ?"

"Let's see… yeah, she was there at 1:38 PM. She boarded a plane… five minutes later." He sounded incredulous.

_A __decoy,__then__?_ If so, a very poor one. She decided to make sure of it, and fast-forwarded the videos to the proper time. She didn't know what Ariana looked like, but surely if she looked hard enough —

"There" she said. She didn't need to find the girl. There was one figure she knew all too well. "Aro Volturi." Nickalas' son, and Ariana's father. Two other silhouettes — looking younger than Ariana — were standing close to the pair. They looked like they were saying goodbye.

The agent's voice in her phone almost surprised her. "The face recognition's got something for the other two. Jane and Alec Seagull, both survivors from the Seagull coven." Louisa nodded. She didn't know them, but had expected something like it. She followed the group through the various videos, and saw that Aro… influenced the airport's staff when they almost refused his daughter on the plane she boarded.

_They're__ really __that __careless, __it__ seems_. Of course, it could still be a decoy. _I __can't __ignore __this,__though_. "Good job, Movere. Keep watching. If she's a decoy, maybe the real one will appear soon, too."

"You think she's a decoy ?"

_No. __But __I__ can't __take __risks. __She's __too __important __if __I__want __to __take __on __the __Volturi_. "I just want to make sure."

"Very well, ma'am. I'll keep watching."

"And don't forget — don't focus too much on Chicago. Keep up the good job. I'll have someone after that girl." She hung up the phone.

She watched a still of Ariana. She _did_ look like a vampire. But why had Aro turned his daughter so young ? And who could she send against her ? _Decoy__ or __not, __she'll __surely __be __protected_. And she didn't have any experienced agent to afford right now. Most of them were hunting major covens in various states.

The answer suddenly fell upon her. There was _one_ experienced agent, one she had trusted with even her identity, who wasn't assigned anywhere.

But he would probably hate her for even asking. He, and the others that would be involved.

* * *

><p>"What is it ?" Jenny asked as Brian hung up the phone. He was training her when it had rung.<p>

The blonde man sighed. "Parere —"

"You mean Louisa. My mother."

"Yeah, whatever. She has got information about someone she's been tracking since the battle."

"Who ?"

"A girl vampire. Ariana Seagull."

"And she wants you to take care of her."

"Not just me. All of us." Brian knew Jenny would understand what he meant by that — all those who had fought in Forks to bring down the Cullen coven recently.

"We're not part of the Unit. Well, Lynne, Hugo and I aren't. Why doesn't she send agents ?"

"They can't. They're tracking down the Cullens' subordinates."

"All of them ?" The blonde girl sounded skeptical.

"Yeah, well, maybe she _wants_ us. What do you say ?"

Jenny pondered about it for a second. "I'll have to ask Emmet and Jacob."

"You know, technically they have no choice." Both of Jenny's lovers were agents of the Unit, just like Brian — if Parere, their leader, issued an order, they'd have to obey her.

Jenny sighed. "You're no fun. Well, I can't let them go alone then, right ? Who else is with us ?"

"I'll ask Lynne if she's okay."

"What about Hugo ?"

Brian winced. _What __about __Hugo, __indeed_. "I don't want to put him in danger. Plus, he's… he's still not over Joan's death." Joan, Hugo's daughter, had been killed by the Cullens. Brian couldn't feel sorry for her — she'd sided with the Cullens and tried to have him killed, and even before that, she had been the most selfish, judgmental brat he'd ever met. But he _did_ feel sorry for Hugo, who had deserved neither to have such a daughter or to lose his only child. He wished he could find a way to alleviate his pain, but Brian didn't think bringing Hugo along for monster hunting was the best of ideas.

Jenny snapped him out of his thoughts when she got on her feet. "Well," she said, "I'd better go home, pack and say bye to my dad. See you later, Brian." He absent-mindedly waved to her, and she left the house — Hugo's house. He heard her go down the stairs and say goodbye to Hugo, but he wasn't listening.

Was there even a way to help Hugo ?

* * *

><p>They reached Westerville the next morning — the Unit had rented them a house there. As soon as they had reached the place, Brian filled them in more on the mission — their target was a girl named Ariana, and was going to study at Dalton Academy, a school there in Westerville. Strangely enough, it was a school for boys. They were still unsure of her abilities, so she had to be approached carefully.<p>

Jenny and the boys were immediately sent to Dalton — though it was Sunday, Louisa had obtained them an appointment with the school's principal. They had to get in the school as soon as possible for a first contact with Ariana.

Dalton was obviously an old school — the building had an architecture from ancient times, though Jenny could not tell exactly what style that was. _Lynne __could __have __told __me __that, __I __guess_. Someone opened the door for them. He was a student, obviously, the same age as Jenny herself, of average height — Jacob and Emmet both towered over him — with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. "Hi, you must be those transfer students they told us about. I'm Blaine Anderson, I'm a student here. Come this way, I'll take you to the principal's office."

They followed him through the hallways of the building to the man's office, who was reading something on his computer. They sat down and waited. After a few minutes, he finally looked at them.

"And who might you be ?" The man asked.

Emmet spoke first. "My name is Emmet Cullen, sir, and these are Jacob Black and Jenny Donna. I think you were informed we wanted to transfer to your school."

"Yes, yes. But I did not know one of you was a _girl_, you see." He insisted on the word _girl_ as if it was an insult.

Jenny frowned, pretending to be confused. "But… I've heard one of my friends attends this school. Ariana Seagull."

The principal gazed at her, eyes wide open in surprise. "Ariana… How do you… No one's supposed to know about her !"

_Damn.__ Please__ tell __me__ I __haven't __blown __our __chance_. Was the man an agent of the Volturi ? As a precaution, she opened to the Power, and prepared her weave. Her father had told her that this kind of illusion could help her control anyone, but she didn't master it well — for now she could only make herself seem more trustworthy. "No, you don't understand. She's an old acquaintance, you see. She told me she was attending Dalton herself." She decided to not try this man too much. "But I will understand if you will not have me in your school."

The man nodded. "Good, good, it doesn't matter. So, I assume you two will still want to study here ?" he added, looking at Emmet and Jacob.

Emmet nodded. "Yes, of course, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Very well" the man said. "I'm going to need you personal informations. And tradition wants me to do that with the student — in private" he added, looking at Jenny. She looked at the boys who both nodded to her, and she left the principal's office.

The boy from earlier — Blaine — was still there, for some reason. "So… are they going to stay here in Dalton ?"

She put on a fake smile. She hoped it didn't appear _too_ fake. "I don't think they'll stay here. We have a house rented for us, here in Westerville, so they don't really need to. But it's their choice" she added, shrugging. Suddenly, she froze — in the middle of the students at the other end of the hallway, she thought she'd seen a familiar face. But before she could be sure, the face had vanished.

She reported her attention on Blaine, who was still talking. "So, are you, like, brothers and sister or something ? You don't really look alike."

She smiled. "No, not at all ! We're just three very close friends." _Very_ close indeed. _Make__ of__ that __what __you __will_. She didn't really mistrust him, but she felt she shouldn't say too much about them until they knew what exactly they were up against.

* * *

><p>Tim cautiously checked the staircase before walking downstairs. He was still shocked to have glimpsed Jenny here. In Dalton ! He'd only been there to recover a book he'd lent to a new kid — a guy named Kurt. What were the odds of she being there <em>at<em>_ the __same __time_ ? What was she doing, all this way from Forks _and_ in the same city as him ? Was Joan with her ? He really hoped she wasn't. With Joan came some bad memories.

Tim almost ran to the front door of the Academy and to his car. Only there did he stop and relax. He did _not_ want his past catching up with him. That's why he and his mother had run to Ohio, damn it !

He drove all the way back to home. His mother greeted him immediately. Cassie Chey was a short and skinny woman, with an almost boyish look to her. She was also the greatest mom Tim could have dreamed of. As an aspiring writer and columnist, she spent a lot of time on the Internet, and kept up with the recent trends. Which meant they had a lot in common — a lot more than a mother and son usually have. Even inside the house, she had her boots on — dark leather boots that were bought to her by her mother.

Tim hugged her, then felt forced to tell her. "I saw Jenny today at school." Looking back on it, it was better that he'd been there to see Jenny today, rather than meeting her where he couldn't just avoid her.

Cassie looked immediately concerned. "Anyone else with her ?"

Tim shook his head. "No, but she was waiting in front of the principal's office. Maybe her boyfriend's there with her." _The __question __is__… __which __one __? __Last __time__ I'd __seen __her, __she __was __torn __between __Emmet __and__ Jacob_.

His mother nodded. "I'll look into it. If we're not safe here in Westerville —"

"Mom, I don't want to leave again."

"Do you want to be killed like your father ?"

He shook his head. Of course not. But he had had so much trouble blending in here, at Dalton… he didn't want to do it again. "If my life is ripped from me every few months, it's no better than being killed."

Cassie smiled. "Fine. I'll see. Maybe there's no good reason to worry, anyway." She smiled, and walked to the living room. Tim followed her. "Anything else ?" she asked.

"Well, nothing — oh, wait, that's not true. Many people are saying that a girl was admitted in Dalton."

"A girl ? That's odd."

"Yeah. Her name's Ariana Seagull, I think. From what I heard, Blaine showed her to her room and helped her move in, and people who saw that say that she was undressing him with her eyes."

"Ariana Seagull ? That's an unusual name. It's _very_ odd."

Tim frowned. "What's odd ?"

"You remember when you were young, we lived in Illinois ?" He nodded. "You met a girl called just that back then. Don't you remember her ?"

Tim thought about it, but gave up. "No. I… don't." It was weird — he was ten back then. It's not like he didn't remember anything from when he was ten, but he couldn't remember a girl named Ariana.

Cassie frowned, but said nothing.


	3. Chapter 2 — The Heartless Has Come

Dalton had so far proved as boring as Ariana had feared. Well, _almost_.

She had arrived in the evening, dropped a few streets away from the school. She walked down to there regally, and people stared at her as she walked by. She didn't care — it was only natural they'd be stunned by her beauty.

She reached the school and knocked on the large wooden doors. Someone opened, and Ariana was stunned by him. He was _gorgeous_. Just plain gorgeous.

"Hi, you must be Ariana." The boy held out his hand, and Ariana shook it, forcing herself not to gape as she stared at him. He was so beautiful ! "I'm Blaine Anderson, I've been sent to show you to the principal's office. Come on, this way." He let her in, then led the way through the hallways, chatting all the while. "So, how was your trip ? I hear you're coming from Chicago, that must have been tiring."

Ariana barely managed an answer. Why was she feeling so… distracted ? She decided it was the boy's looks. He was incredibly hot and _sexah_. She decided he could make a nice boyfriend in replacement of Damien. Hopefully _he_ wouldn't betray her. She was glad she had her black dress on, which showed nothing but still left nothing to the imagination.

However, she soon realized he wasn't even _looking_ at her. Why wasn't he looking at her ? She knew she was pretty — she used to think she wasn't before, but Damien had told her she was the hottest girl in the world, as had her father, when she'd seen him earlier the same day — though it already felt like ages ago.

She was cut off in her plans to make Blaine fall for her when they reached the office. Ariana knocked on the door and entered immediately — since her mother was dead, Ariana was Queen of all vampires, so waiting just wouldn't do. The principal looked up to her, frowning.

"You're Ariana Seagull, I assume ? Your father told me a lot about you."

"Yes." She walked to a chair and sat down, making him frown deeper, but she didn't care. Her father had talked to her school's principal ? She didn't know ! Her dad was really the _best_.

The principal nodded. "Well, I don't think there is anything I have to ask you ; your father gave me all the information I needed. So, is there any question you have ?"

She pondered about it for a while, then the boy she'd met came back to her mind. "Actually, there is. Do you think you could ask Blaine to…" she looked for words, "help me blend in ?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I… I guess I can, Miss Seagull, but I have to remind you of something first. You may be an… oddity here, and even though your father… convinced me to accept you in the school, I expect you to behave properly."

"An oddity ? What do you mean ?"

The principal looked surprised. "You don't know ? Miss Seagull, Dalton is a school for _boys_. You're going to be the only girl here."

Ariana gasped. Her father had chosen her a school for _boys_ ? Well, it probably made sense he would hide her there — no one would expect to find her here. "Oh. I see. Well, that's all I needed to know." She got up and walked to the door. "Thank you, sir."

He blinked. "You may go, then." As if she needed his _permission_ ! "Blaine will show you to your room." Well, that was a lot more interesting.

She followed Blaine through the hallways again, and this time, a lot of other students, intrigued, followed them. She ignored them, walking majestically in front of them.

When they reached the room, she looked around, trying to find something positive about it. It was so small ! And so… _common_. Why hadn't they given her a better room ? "I hate it" she said. She heard the students gasp, and saw that most looked sad — especially Blaine. But she didn't regret her words — there was nothing wrong with saying the truth.

Ariana had spent the whole weekend in her room, unpacking her things. Most of that were dresses, and she had a hard time figuring out how she could fit them all in the small closet she was given. The students were supposed to wear a uniform, but she wasn't a regular student and the uniform was for _boys_, so there was no way she'd wear one, and she'd decided to wear her dresses instead. In the end, she just gave up and left most of her dresses in the suitcase.

Ariana had understood that her room was just like every other room for the students staying in Dalton — there was no "better room" for her. Still, she wished they had, like, given her one of the large classrooms instead. But that is the problem with being royalty in hiding — you did not have _all_ your usual privileges. At least they had had the decency to give her her own bathroom.

Ariana woke up on Monday rather early — her father had wanted her to go to this school, so she decided to at least try and go to her classes. Once. However, when she reached the school's entrance hall, she saw that all the students were headed to the same room. She grabbed a boy's arm and asked him what was going on.

"The Warblers are rehearsing !" The boy was short — roughly the same height as herself — and had a very… _girly_ face. Definitely not sexah, but maybe some would find him cute. "They're the school's show choir. They're really awesome ! You should come along and watch !" He made a few steps, then turned back and held out his hand. "By the way, I'm Tim Chey. I guess you're Ariana — everyone keeps talking about you !"

She nodded, and walked past him, following the other students. She took care not to shake his hand — she didn't want to give him the wrong idea or anything. He watched her go, intrigued, then followed.

She elbowed her way through the crowd and finally reached the entrance of a large room, where a group of students stood in the middle. And then she noticed — Blaine was among them. She immediately had to repress an urge to go and kiss him at once, reminding herself he wasn't her boyfriend yet. Then they started to sing — Blaine was doing the lead ! — and it was wonderful. Ariana didn't know the song, but it didn't matter — it sounded so… _cool_.

She was so excited that she jumped out of the audience and in front of them, shouting "I wanna sing the song too ! You're _so_ hot ! Please let me sing along !"

One of them — an Asian guy — frowned and asked, "Can you even sing ?"

She nodded "Of course ! After all, I'm…" she caught herself right on time — she couldn't say she was a princess, after all. "I'm a very good singer !" Then she sang her favorite song, Evanescence's _Everybody's__ fool_.

Everyone looked at her, looking charmed by her talent and her beauty. _Of__ course__ they __are_. However, a few of them — one of the Warblers, a guy with light brown hair standing behind Blaine, and that Tim guy, notably — were wincing. As she was singing, she gained in confidence. It was like magic — her voice grew louder, firmer and more beautiful.

As she reached the last chorus, however, she was interrupted when a Warbler screamed. It was the boy standing next to Blaine — the one who had seemed displeased by her — and he fell to his knees, as if he were in pain.

Then, all of a sudden, he exploded. Literally. Blood and guts were scattered all across the room. Students started to panic and screamed, and they ran away as quickly as possible. Only Blaine and a few of the Warblers remained — Blaine, strangely, had collapsed and was holding his head in his hands. Was he _sobbing_ ?

She walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Blaine. It's okay. He wasn't _sexah_ anyway."

A Warbler — the Asian guy — looked at her, scandalized. "Kurt was his _boyfriend_ ! You could show more respect !" His boyfriend ? This was ridiculous. Surely that guy was wrong.

"It's okay, Wes." Blaine said as he was getting back on his feet. "I'm sure the lady didn't mean to offend anyone." Had he just called her a _lady_ ? That was so romantic and chivalrous ! "Would you please come with me, Ariana ? I think we need to talk." He held out his hand.

Ariana didn't need to hesitate — she grabbed it at once, and followed him.

* * *

><p>Tim had had time to drag Kurt to an empty classroom near the choir room before the boy regained consciousness. When he did, he breathed in deeply — as if he had been suffocating. Tim let him catch his breath and get back on his feet.<p>

"Where am I ?" Kurt asked. "Tim ? What happened ?"

"Surely you remember what happened." Tim said. Better to say that than admit he wasn't entirely sure himself.

Kurt frowned. "I…" His eyes widened as he remembered. "How is that even possible ?"

"That's easy," a voice said from behind. Kurt spun to face a woman — Tim's mom. "It was an illusion I created to get you out." She held out her hand, smiling. "I'm sorry, where are my manners ? I'm Tim's mother — call me Cassie."

Kurt mechanically shook her hand, still in shock. Then he finally managed to talk. "That… doesn't make sense. You're kidding, right ? You can't do that, can you ?" Cassie smiled, and Kurt turned to Tim. "She's kidding, right ?" Tim shrugged, shaking his head.

"Well, in any case, we have to take you to safety. You'll come to our house for a while."

"What ? No ! I've gotta go and tell the others I'm fine !" He walked towards the door, but Tim blocked his way. Kurt looked down at him — and once more, Tim cursed his small stature — but didn't try to force his way. "I gotta tell at least Blaine !"

"Your relationship with Blaine Anderson is what put you in this situation in the first place" Cassie said. "Come with us ; once we reach our home, I'll explain it all to you."

Kurt glanced at Cassie, thoughtful. "Fine. But your explanation had better be worth it."

When they reached their house, Tim showed Kurt to the room they'd prepared for him, then left him alone so he could get used to the place. Tim then walked downstairs, and found his mother lying on a couch, her laptop in front of her.

"Mom" he said. Where to even begin ? "Kurt's not the only one who could use an explanation."

His mother nodded. "I know. I should have warned you earlier, but there was so much to plan in so little time. Ah, that's no excuse. I should have told you about it all long ago."

"About what ?"

Cassie paused, biting her lower lip, seemingly searching for words. "Do you remember, when you were just a little boy and you got sick ? You always recovered fast, and you told me it was because I had magical hands." Tim nodded. "Well, you may not have been completely wrong."

Tim frowned. "What ?"

"I found it out shortly after we moved to Forks. I met a man who explained it all to me, helped me understand. I am, and this is the scientific term, a witch."

Tim gasped. His _mother_, a _witch_ ? Was she joking ? But no — he could see how serious she was. Plus, after what they'd found out about the Cullens… This made just as much sense. "I… I don't even know what to say."

"Please start by saying you're not mad at me for hiding it from you." Her eyes were almost pleading. He had all the reasons to be mad — their relationship was based on trust. They'd never had secrets for each other before — even when a few months ago, Tim had had a boyfriend for the first time. _Best __not __to __think __of __Nick__ now_.

But… "I'm not mad." He just _wasn't_. Sure, not having secrets was important but this… this was just too _big_. He didn't know how _he_ would handle it if he had such a secret. "So, what you did there in Dalton…"

"An illusion. I'm far from being strong, but I have an incredible talent for healing and creating illusions, we determined." _I__ wonder __who __it __is __she __met_. Someone Tim himself knew, maybe ?

"Okay, but why ?"

"I told you. We met Ariana before. That girl is dangerous — once she sets her eyes on a boy, anything in her way gets destroyed. And then she drains the life out of her boy toy."

Tim nodded ; he understood what she meant. Kurt, Blaine's boyfriend, was obviously an obstacle between Ariana and Blaine. "But what are we going to _do_ now, mom ?"

"You told me you did not want to leave again. To run away again. So we have but one option. We fight back."


	4. Chapter 3 — Enter the Darkness

Ariana followed Blaine through a few hallways until they reached an empty classroom. She went straight for the teacher's chair and sat down, followed by Blaine who lounged against the wall beside her.

"So, Ariana. I… well, nice singing voice."

She giggled. "Thanks. Sorry about your friend, though." His expression grew darker, and Ariana remembered what one of the Warbler had said — that Kurt was Blaine's boyfriend. Surely he meant best friend, but that didn't change anything — maybe she shouldn't have reminded Blaine about it. "I mean… I didn't mean for that to happen —"

"It's okay. Whatever that was, I'm sure it's not your fault. A girl can't make people explode, now can you ?" He said, trying to smile — but she noticed his smile was fake. _I can't make people explode — as far as I know it — but if you knew what I can do…_ Ariana had already decided against telling Blaine the truth about herself, though. Maybe she would, later. When he'd be ready.

So, instead, she laughed, too. "Of course not. That'd be crazy, right ?" Blaine was looking at her intensely, and his smile broadened. Maybe she _was_ finally getting his attention ? She sure hoped so.

She didn't realize they'd been staring at each other before Blaine broke the spell by saying something again. "You know, Kurt and I… I thought we were a couple and all…"

She frowned. "You mean you're _gay_ ?" She couldn't believe it.

"I thought so. But now that I see you, I think I might be straight."

That was pretty direct. "Why ?"

"Because you're so… beautiful."

She looked away, blushing. "I'm not that pretty." This suddenly reminded her of Damien ; he'd said something similar. She closed her eyes, praying things wouldn't go so… _messy_ this time.

"Yes you are." Just what Damien had told her, too. Then she felt the boy's lips on hers and he kissed her passionately. She could feel a fire burning inside her as she kissed back. When their lips parted, Blaine asked, panting, "Will you go out with me ?"

_Yes. Of course_. But she shouldn't be too hasty — she didn't want to make him believe she was too easy. So she shrugged instead. "Okay."

He smiled, apparently delighted at that simple answer. "That's great ! And you could join the Warblers too, if you want. I'm sure the others won't mind — plus, we'll need someone to replace Kurt." This time, Ariana was glad to see Blaine's sadness at the mention of Kurt was gone. "Okay ?"

"Sure, why not ?"

"Okay, come with me, we'll go see Wes and David. They're kind of our leaders here. Don't worry, I'm sure they'll like you."

They hurried upstairs, Blaine leading Ariana to an office not too far from the principal's own. In here, they found two guys in the school's uniform — Ariana recognized them as part of the Warblers ; one of them was the Asian guy who had been so mean to her before. She glared at him for a second before she managed to stop and regain composure.

"Hey guys," Blaine said as soon as he entered, "How're you doing ?" The Asian guy frowned and looked like he was about to say something, but Blaine cut him off. "I want to introduce you to Ariana. Ariana, these are Wes Montgomery" — he pointed to the mean Asian guy — "and David Thompson." That one was a black guy Ariana hadn't really noticed until then. "They're two of the Warblers' leading figures, sort of."

"Wow," David said, "you're so hot." He then looked around, confused, as if he hadn't meant to say it out loud. Not that Ariana wasn't used to such reactions, especially recently.

Blaine didn't take it so well. "Watch out, man. Ariana's my girlfriend." He wrapped his arm around her as he said that. _Well, maybe playing hard-to-get won't be necessary_, Ariana thought as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I want you to… consider Ariana for joining the Warblers."

The two boys didn't answer for a moment — David was staring at her blank-eyed and Wes was… well, it seemed to Ariana he was trying hard _not_ to stare at her. "We already have too many members" Wes said eventually.

"Actually," Blaine said, "now that Kurt exploded, we have an opened slot for her. Come on, guys. She sings like a goddess, or a siren. And…" he turned to her and added, "she's the love of my life." Ariana blushed before such boldness from Blaine. It was brave, though, to dare admit it in front of her and his friends. She felt… _flattered_.

"I'm okay if she joins" David said, suddenly emerging from his contemplation of Ariana only to dive right back into it. That boy could at least _try_ to pretend he wasn't attracted to her !

Everyone turned to Wes, who looked first at David with a weird expression, then at Blaine, as if he was silently asking him a question. Then he looked at Ariana and their eyes met. Something suddenly changed in the boy's eyes, Ariana noticed. It was as if he was suddenly under the effect of some drugs — his pupils dilated, and he looked more… relaxed. Was that the effect she had on boys ? In any case, Wes broke eye contact, and nodded to the others. "Fine. She may join us."

Ariana cheered and hugged Blaine, who thanked the pair before leading her out of the office. There, he kissed her in front of all the students who were walking by, looking at them, visibly surprised.

"Didn't go too bad, right ?" Blaine whispered to her. She giggled. "Ariana… may I ask you something ?"

She let go of him and looked at him, puzzled. "Sure, what is it ?"

"How about dinner ? You and me, tonight, at BreadstiX ?"

She didn't know what BreadstiX was, but she didn't care. "Of course ! That'd be great !"

* * *

><p>Lynne headed to the police department in the morning. Since only Jacob and Emmet of their group were in Ariana's school, Brian, Jenny and Lynne herself were basically free to do whatever they wanted, and Lynne felt more comfortable starting with what she knew. The building was smaller than she'd expected for a town that much larger than Forks, but she didn't mind that either — it would be easier to find who knew what in a smaller department.<p>

As she entered the building, Lynne bumped into a young man with dark red hair and black eyes, and for a second thought she was confronted to the ghost of John Stark — the young man who'd worked with her in Forks against the Cullens, and died because of it. But of course not — it was someone else, of course. He was slightly taller, and had less boyish features, too.

"Whoa" he said. "Look where you're going !"

Lynne frowned. _No need to be rude_. "I could tell you the same."

The man chuckled. "That's right. So, maybe you need someone to help you ? I'm detective Jason Curtis, criminal brigade."

"I might well need your help, then. Detective Lynne Epieu, police of Forks."

"Forks, that's in… ?"

"Washington."

"Huh. Heard about some things around there." She guessed what he meant — despite the Unit's hard work to cover up the battle, word had still gotten out of strange events. And there had been a lot of discussion about the apparently unsolved crimes, including the death of Lynne's own daughter. "That's a long way from here. What's going on ?"

"I'm investigating on someone. Ariana Seagull. She arrived here from Chicago last Friday, I'd like to know if you have anything about her, or any strange crimes that took place since her arrival."

He stared at her. "That's a very… precise request. And why is a detective from Forks interested in a girl from Chicago ?"

Lynne did her best to not show any of her emotions. "I can't tell you until I'm sure of what I suspect."

"I see. Mysterious as ever. Any connection to the unsolved cases in your home town ?" he asked, grinning.

Of course he'd suspect that. "You're so smart. Now are you going to help me or not ?"

"Maybe." He stared at her, visibly amused. "Well, I mean, I guess I can at least fill you in on the murder part. That is, after I check your identity."

"And about the girl ?"

"You know, we don't investigate on everyone who ever comes to live in here. It may take a few days. _If_ you manage to convince me that it's actually necessary, that is."

_Oh, I'm sure I could convince you_. But of course, telling him the truth was excluded. "That will do, for now."

* * *

><p>"Look at this" Lynne told Brian and Jenny as soon as she got back home. The two interrupted their training session and gathered around a table where Lynne placed a few folders. "In the past three days — which is when Ariana arrived in town — there have been five murders that resemble a vampire's actions — people drained from their blood. <em>Five<em>."

Brian frowned. "You mean the police _found_ five." Lynne nodded. The man pondered for a while. "Even if that's all there is — that would mean at least two or three bloodsuckers are around town."

"So there's probably a whole coven, right ?" Jenny asked. "I thought Ariana had come here alone."

"Ariana might not be related to these murders," Brian said, "although I doubt it. Aro would have known if there was a coven around — if anything, they're probably here to protect her."

Silence fell upon the three of them. Then Jenny walked away from the table, shrugging. "Bring them on. I'm not scared." She expected to be scolded for being reckless, but before either Brian or Lynne could do that, the door opened and Emmet and Jacob came in.

"Hey" Jacob said.

"So, how was school ?" Jenny said mockingly as she kissed them — she'd stopped caring about what people would think of her relationship with them, and Brian and Lynne didn't seem to care anymore, anyway.

"Well, you're never going to believe it" Emmet answered. They all gathered around the table once more. "What happened is just insane. Before class started, this morning, there was a rehearsal by the local show choir. Don't ask — apparently, that's usual around here. Then Ariana showed up, she made her way through the crowd, interrupted them, started to sing…"

"Get on with it, Em." Jenny said.

"It's not really easy to explain, you know."

"Let me try to explain, then" Jacob said. "As she was singing, everyone was… charmed by her. Except a few people around, that is. And one of them — a student named Kurt, I think — well… he exploded."

"He _what_ ?" Lynne asked.

"He exploded. Or, well, imploded. One second he was there, then he screamed and dropped on his knees, and then there was blood and guts everywhere."

Everyone turned to Brian. "Ever heard of something that makes people implode ?" Jenny asked. She had never heard of that when studying magic with Louisa or her father.

Brian himself shook his head. "Nope. It could be her individual ability as a vampire, though. But we'd have heard of it. And it doesn't explain why she left the others alone."

"That's not the end of it" Emmet said. "After that, many people panicked and left, but she stood there, completely emotionless. I mean… she just didn't _care_. Then she started throwing a tantrum because Kurt's boyfriend was shocked, and he just snapped out of it."

"Wait, you mean she forced him to snap out of it ?" That was a kind of illusion Jenny was herself trying to master. Maybe Ariana _was_ a witch ?

"I don't know. I guess at first you could have said he was trying to pretend he was okay, but then they spent the rest of the days acting like lovebirds, as if the guy hadn't just lost his boyfriend."

"He was… I don't know, _mesmerized_ by her" Jacob said.

That rang a bell in Jenny's memory. Last time Jacob had said that, he was talking about himself and how he had felt compelled to love Joan. Later on, Jenny had learned Louisa was behind it, using her powers to try and lure Joan away from her vampire boyfriend. _Could it be ?_

She explained her theory to the others. Lynne agreed to look for deaths that could be caused by an empath. As for proving Ariana is a witch… "I have my talent" Jenny said. She could sense the proximity of witches.

"You'd have to get close to her to be sure" Brian said. "How would you that ? It would be risky."

He was right. She needed another plan.


	5. Chapter 4 — A Date With Fate

Ariana was glad she had a bathroom for herself. It took her two hours bathing, doing her hair — she tried a dozen ways before settling on simply curling them and letting them fall freely — doing her make-up and nails and choosing what to wear — eventually settling on a pink dress that made her look like the princess she was. She could afford to be herself for _this_ night. Why was she so _nervous_ anyway ? It was only a boy. Only… _Blaine_. Even thinking the name felt wonderful and terrible at the same time.

She took in a deep breath, trying to repress her stress, when someone knocked on the door. Refraining from running, she opened the door, and there he was. He wore the Dalton uniform, but it had never looked so _gorgeous_ in Ariana's eyes. She noticed his hair weren't gelled as they usually were, instead forming a lovely mess of short curls she immediately felt like running her hands through. Not that she would actually do it, of course. A lady was to control her impulses.

"My lady" Blaine said with an old-fashioned bow that made Ariana giggle — a giggle he returned with a smile. "Are you ready for dinner ?" he asked, holding out his hands.

She took his hands with a curtsy of her own — she had never been to her father's court, but she'd been taught her manners. "More than ready."

He led her out of the school and to a car — it was massive, almost like a small truck, and oh so very _manly_ to Ariana.

The drive took longer than Ariana had expected — they'd actually left Westerville, it seemed — and she almost asked where exactly they were going when Blaine pulled out in front of a large building. She guessed this was the restaurant they were going to.

Blaine killed the engine and rushed out of the car to open Ariana's door and help her out before leading her inside of the restaurant. A moment later, they were sitting inside, at an isolated table in the corner, and Blaine was contemplating her silently. She didn't feel like talking, either, fearing she'd break the magic of the moment.

Someone else did break it, though. "Have you made your choice ?" Both Ariana and Blaine started at this before turning to the waiter. Ariana immediately recognized his blonde hair and grey eyes, and she felt her eyes widening in surprise. _Mark ?_ It _was_ Mark, and she realized at his expression that _he_ had recognized her as well. She had to find a way to get away quickly, before he revealed her secrets and ruined everything _again_.

She did the only thing she could think of. She screamed. Blaine immediately jumped from his chair and placed himself in front of her, protectively. "What is it, Ariana ?"

"That waiter, he's…" She said the thing she could think of. "He's so ugly ! It's offensive ! And I'm sure he wants to _kiss_ me !"

"He _what_ ?" Blaine erupted. He grabbed a knife lying on their table and stabbed Mark, who collapsed to the ground.

_Oh, no_. That was a little too much. Blaine could be in trouble now ! She stood and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Blaine…" She had to find a way to get them out of there, she had to—

She was interrupted by the sound of the crowd cheering. Ariana heard one customer, an old woman, tell the man she was eating with, "That's a good thing. How we could stand the sight of such an ugly young man for so long is beyond me."

Ariana was slightly shocked. It was like with Wes and David — they were all agreeing with her. Jane had once mentioned some vampires had powers. Could this be hers ?

"Ariana ?" Blaine had apparently called out her name several times already, and she hadn't noticed. Her haze fell to Mark, still lying on the floor, blood spreading around him. "Ariana, are you okay ? Come on, let's eat."

"I… don't feel like it anymore." Noticing Blaine's surprise, she added, in a rush, "He was so ugly. I'm disgusted now."

Blaine nodded. "I understand. I kinda feel the same way, actually. Come on, let's go back to Dalton, then."

Disappointment washed over her — their first date was such a mess ! — but she followed him sheepishly to the car.

* * *

><p>Suddenly Brian felt very happy he'd followed Ariana and her date all the way to Lima. At least things got interesting, much more so than watching Jenny mumbling about a plan to determine what Ariana was.<p>

The couple's car wasn't even of sight when Brian rushed inside the restaurant, kneeling beside the wounded young man. Whoever he was, he had done something to earn Ariana's wrath, and Brian wanted to know what. And of course, he couldn't just stand there and let him bleed to death.

As he was checking the boy's vitals, Brian realized people started to emerge from the apathy they had shown when Ariana was present. He pulled his FBI plate and ordered the restaurant be evacuated immediately. In the ensuing chaos, he pulled a vial of one of Parere's — he still couldn't think of her as _Louisa_ — healing compounds and applied it on the wound.

A moment later, the boy's grey eyes fluttered open. "Who— Who are you ?" His voice was wavering — Brian knew by experience that even with his wound magically healing, he'd still hurt for a while. "What happened ?"

"Name's Brian Hahnel. As for what happened… Well, I hoped you could help me clarify it." The boy frowned, and Brian added, "You got stabbed in the stomach by a Dalton student who was on a date with Ariana Seagull. Remember ?"

He grimaced slightly — due to the pain or something else ? "…Yeah."

"Good. Do you know why he did that ?"

He stared at Brian for a moment. "Ariana made him. I know you won't believe me, but she did. I know her. I've seen what she's capable of."

"Actually, I think I could believe you." The boy looked surprised, but before Brian could explain himself, he was interrupted by the sound of the front door being opened. Brian got back on his feet to greet the two newcomers, but was cut short when he noticed one of them was Lynne.

She looked just as surprised, but reacted faster than Brian could. "Agent Hahnel ? Already in the place ?"

The other man — a tall guy, almost as tall as Hugo, with upsettingly dark eyes — frowned at Lynne. "You know this man, Detective ?"

"This is agent Hahnel, FBI. He helped me on a case before. Hahnel, this is Jason Curtis, criminal brigade of Westerville." _Westerville ? What's he doing all the way here in Lima, then ?_ Brian kept the question to himself, though.

"So," Curtis asked, "what can you tell me about this situation, agent Hahnel ?"

"I was around when I heard all the fuss going on inside. From what I gathered, one of the client, Ariana, freaked out, her date stabbed this waiter here, and they walked away before I arrived. He apparently missed, too, because it's only a flesh wound. Lots of blood, but nothing else." That's what it should look like by now, with the healing compound taking effect.

The cop frowned deeply. "Really ? That's not what I was told." Brian just shrugged, not bothering to answer. Whoever had called the police in the first place couldn't have checked the severity of the wound, so Brian could easily imply they had been impressed over nothing. Curtis probably came to a similar conclusion, and turned to the boy instead. "Still, might I have your deposition, Mr.… ?"

"Thorn" the waiter said. "Mark Thorn. I…" He glanced at Brian. "Do I have to do it right away ?"

Curtis nodded. "It'd be best, while the events are still clear in your memory."

"But… I'm going to need someone to drive me back home, to Westerville."

"I'll take care of that" Brian said. That earned him a stunned look from Curtis and another, more questioning, from Lynne. "I'll have some question for Mr Thorn when you'll be done with him anyway."

Curtis frowned even more deeply. "I see. Let's go, then."

* * *

><p>"Mom, can you remind me again why we're waiting in front of the school, at eleven p.m. ?"<p>

Next to him, in the driver seat of her car, Cassie sighed. "You're the one who told me about hearing that Blaine and Ariana went on a date tonight."

Tim nodded — he was indeed. Also, that was no answer. He told his mother so.

"I wanna try something" she answered. "There's a lot I remember from last time we met Ariana. And since then, I learned I was a witch. Which means I can do more than before. And that made me come up with a theory I want to put to the test."

"What theory ?" Kurt asked from the back of the car. Cassie hadn't looked very comfortable with the boy coming along, for some reason, but he'd been adamant on being there to help at any time.

"I'll explain to you _after_ it's done." The sound of an engine came their way, and Tim soon recognized the car Blaine had borrowed from another Warbler. An exclamation of disdain came from Kurt — probably due to the tasteless choice of car — but Cassie motioned him to be silent.

As the car was pulling over, Tim felt something emanate from his mother — a feeling similar to heat radiating from a fire, except… well, it wasn't really heat. Tim wondered if that was because his mother was using her powers right now, and if so, why he could feel it. Unwilling to disturb her now, he made a mental note to ask her about it later.

The couple got out of the car, Ariana's heels making her slightly taller than Blaine, which Tim thought was really disgraceful. He heard their voices, loud in the night.

"…come on, Ariana, baby, it's okay now. He's dead, right ?"

"I don't know, Blaine. It's like he comes back all the time. No matter what I do to make sure he doesn't."

"I'm sure you're worrying too much."

She only sighed as they reached the school's front door. It opened — Tim guessed another student was waiting for them on the other side — but before they walked inside, a sound made them freeze. The sound of hooves, coming from somewhere behind Tim. He twisted on his seat to try and see what was happening, and couldn't help but gape at what he saw. Mechanically, he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

Half a dozen ponies were galloping down the street towards them.

Not ponies in the regular sense of the word either. Their coats were way too colorful for real ponies. Tim had spent enough time on the Internet to recognize these as… well, the ponies from _My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic_. Not that Tim would admit out loud to recognizing them.

The ponies kept running, and stopped all of a sudden in front of the Dalton Academy, right in front of the still stunned Ariana and Blaine — so suddenly, in fact, that Tim wondered how their momentum didn't carry them further.

That little detail made him realize what was happening. This was probably what his mother had been working on with her magic. Now, as to the _why_…

He was interrupted in his thoughts by a scream — Ariana's. The girl was scared by the ponies, which was really strange to Tim, who was already used to her constant Disney Princess act. Why was she afraid of _ponies_ of all things ?

Blaine's reaction was just as interesting, if not more. He looked almost as if the ponies were _talking_ to him, somehow — looking at them but not staring, his expression changing from confusion to attentive. At a certain moment, he glanced at Ariana and jerked away, as if disgusted by her.

The girl didn't notice. "Oh my God, Blaine ! Do something ! They're going to eat me ! _They're going to eat me !_"

_I wish we could bake you into cupcakes_, Tim thought, amused. _That'd be much easier_.

Blaine looked at her and the ponies, apparently confused once more. "But… why would they ?"

"Blaine !" Ariana was furious now. "I said. Do. Something !"

Blaine didn't, and just stared at her, frowning as Ariana's screams became more and more incoherent. Finally, she looked at the ponies resolutely, walked towards them, and… they vanished in an explosion of colors before she could do anything.

A few minutes of stunned silence followed, in the car and outside, until someone walked out of the school — probably the student who was supposed to open the door and was starting to wonder what was going on — and brought Ariana and Blaine back inside.

"What the _hell_ did I just watch ?" Tim said — it was more of a rhetorical question, one he couldn't hold back.

His mother sighed — Tim hadn't even realized she'd held her breath. "That was… a mild success."

"What, you found that Ariana's weakness was magical ponies ?" Kurt asked, not even bothering to hide the sarcasm.

That, for some reason, made Cassie chuckle softly. "No, that was… well, I needed to give my spell a physical form, and that's what came to my mind. I actually wanted to see if I could block out Ariana's abilities with mine."

"Her abilities ?" Tim asked, intrigued. Not only because he hadn't even considered the possibility that Ariana might have a power on her own, but also because the first thing that came to his mother's mind was _ponies_. One more thing to ask about later.

Cassie started the engine and started to drive to their home before answering. "You didn't notice ? Almost every boy or man bows to her will, and a large amount of women as well. It happens too often to be ignored as simple coincidence."

"So you think she has some form of magic that makes people like her ?" Kurt asked.

"Not _like_ her. _Adore_ her. And it's not magic, or I would see its effects. But I'm pretty sure she has some sort of ability that makes everyone attracted to her."

"And you have cancelled that out ?" Kurt asked, sounding more hopeful with each question. Not that Tim could blame him — it was his boyfriend Ariana was after.

"That's why I said it's only a mild success. I… I think I managed to hold _some_ of it back, but not all of it. And I don't know how long it will last, either. I'm sorry, Kurt. That's as best as I can do."

There was a hint of disappointment on the boy's face, but he smiled nonetheless. "That's already better than what we had before. If we're lucky, that will be enough to let him fight her back." _If we're lucky_. That wasn't really satisfying to Tim.

They finally reached their house, and Kurt rushed upstairs to go to sleep. Tim, however, lingered in the living room with his mother. "Mom, is that really all we can do ?"

"I'm doing everything I can think of. You have to realize, I'm not really the kind of witch who will blow stuff up. As much as I wish I was right now. My talents are elsewhere, and I use them as much as I can."

"So what ? We just stand back and watch Ariana do her thing ?"

"No. But we need help. And I don't know where to get it." She closed her eyes for a second, and suddenly was out of witch mode and back into mom mode, as she said. "Now, Tim, you have school tomorrow. Go to sleep. I'll figure it out."

He protested for a couple minutes — just for the sake of it — before heading to his bedroom, his mind still full of the questions he'd wanted to ask his mother. Ah, well, it could wait for tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 5 — Another Side

The drive from the Westerville police department had been silent, since Mark was apparently intimidated by Brian and Brian himself did not want to pry. That is, until they got to the address Mark had given him as his home — a nondescript apartment building near Dalton, and incidentally, near the house Parere had gotten for the team.

As he parked in front of the building, Brian noticed the boy next to him was squirming in his seat.

"What is it ?" he asked, trying to be as gentle as possible.

Mark looked at him, with a fierce look in his eyes — that Brian suspected was much more a facade than anything. "You said you believed me. About Ariana." Brian just nodded, waiting for more. "I… I don't think I want to go back home right now. I don't want to be alone."

His eyes were almost begging, and Brian immediately understood. "I can take you with me, if you want. Introduce you to the team. We'll need your help, anyway."

"_My_ help ? I seriously doubt that."

"You know her. Whatever you know made her try to kill you. We could use some knowledge." He paused, letting that sink in for a moment. "What do you say ?"

The fierce expression was back, much more confident than before. "Okay," Mark said, "I'll come with you."

Brian nodded and started the engine again. A couple minutes later, he opened the door to their house and let Mark enter as he locked the door behind them. The others were already in the living room — Brian had guessed Lynne would brief them as soon as she had left the police department.

Mark immediately turned around and shot a worried glance at Brian, who smiled encouragingly at him. "Everyone, this is Mark Thorn. Mark, you've already met Lynne, and these are Jenny, Emmet, and Jacob." Emmet immediately went for a hug, which got a chuckle out of Mark.

Seeing people his age seemed to make the boy relax, but that only lasted for a second before his confusion took over again. "Who _are_ you exactly ? You don't really look like feds to me."

"Technically," Lynne said, "we're nobody. We've been sent here to help out… friends of ours, but that's about it. We're here for Ariana."

"You're not really answering."

"Look," Jenny said, "we can't just tell you everything right now. But Ariana wants you dead, and _we_ are here to stop her. That makes us your friends."

"Stop her ? How ? From doing what ?"

Jenny glanced at Brian, who answered for her. "I'm sure you have noticed that Ariana's more than meets the eye. We know she's dangerous. But to determine _what_ exactly she'll do, we'll need your help. You said you knew her. What can you tell us ? Does anything strange usually happen around her ?"

Mark stared at all of them for a minute, then he nodded. "You bet. Our strange is her norm, you could almost say." He sighed. "It's going to be a long story. Could we get something to eat ? I was supposed to have dinner after my shift, and… well, I didn't have the opportunity with all this stuff going on."

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, they sat around a couple pizzas that had just been delivered. After another minute or so of eating in silence, Jenny decided they'd waited long enough.<p>

"So, Mark," she started, "what can you tell us about Ariana ?"

Almost startled at the question, the boy hurriedly swallowed his mouthful of pizza, and took a deep breath before answering. "I— what do you want to know ?"

"Why don't you tell us the whole story ? From the start ?" Lynne asked, one of her ever-so-rare smiles on her lips. Jenny realized the detective looked almost _maternal_ right now, which shocked her — until she remembered the woman had been a mother, too.

Mark looked slightly embarrassed, but he nodded. "It all started — around six months ago now." Jenny frowned — that was when the battle in Forks had taken place. Coincidence ? "I lived in Chicago, with my parents, and my cousin Damien — you see, Damien was an orphan, he was practically raised by my parents. He and I were like brothers. Then they — my parents, I mean — got a phone call. Some friends of dad, the Seagulls, were leaving on some sort of trip and they wanted my parents to look after their foster daughter." Most of the Seagulls had, according to Louisa, been killed in the battle in Forks. Yes, definitely not a coincidence.

"Ariana." Emmet had spoken without thinking, and only realized he'd interrupted when Jenny elbowed him in the side. "Sorry, dude. Keep going."

"It's okay. Yes, Ariana. We tried to be nice to her, and—" he blushed, but continued, his voice uncertain, "I think both Damien and I developed some sort of a crush on her. But Ariana, _she_ wanted Damien. And by that, I mean she wanted him all to herself. When she noticed how close we were, she started turning everyone against me — I don't even know how she did it. She disliked me, and it looked as if it was good enough a reason for my own family to hate me as well." He looked at each of them, as if expecting to be interrupted, but no one did. "Anyway, she went to the military school with us when classes resumed, and it was pretty much the same as with my family — everyone followed her every order, anticipated her every whim. And things started to happen — people died around her, and she acted weird every time — almost _guilty_ — as if she knew it would happen."

"How did they die ?" Lynne asked.

"Never the same way. One of them crashed through an ice rink and drowned, one was attacked by a cow, then hit by a truck. There were more, but you get the idea. More often than not, investigation concluded that they had done it themselves."

"How can you get yourself attacked by a cow and hit by a truck ?" Jacob asked, skeptical.

"Beats me. Apparently, Joan Hart — the woman in question — provoked the cow, then ran towards the road and jumped in front of the truck. That's what the driver said anyway — he thought she was hitch hiking at first, because she was standing next to the road, then suddenly jumped in front of his truck."

Jenny glanced at Brian. They had already figured out Ariana could influence people. But they hadn't heard of her pushing anyone to suicide. Yet.

Mark noticed their exchange and cast them an apologetic glance. "Sorry I can't clarify more than that. It probably makes even less sense to me than it does to you."

"But that's not all there is, right ?" Lynne asked.

Mark's expression darkened. "No, it isn't. Over time, everyone was shunning me out, so I was basically forced to live in hiding in the school grounds. Even my parents wouldn't take me in anymore. But then, over a week ago, Damien came looking for me." He paused for a moment, lost in his thoughts. "He looked panicked, and he told me he was running away from Ariana. That when she was there, he was like an observer in his own body — he couldn't do anything on his own will, only when Ariana wanted him to. He asked me — _wanted_ me — to help him escape the school before she found him." He paused again.

After a minute, Brian tried to get the rest of the story. "So what did you do ?"

"Well, I— It sounded crazy, and I— I didn't — I _couldn't_ believe him. Before I could do anything, though Ariana found us, and he immediately started acting like her lapdog again. But then, a few days later, we were on a trip to a chemical factory with the school, and there was a gas leak. Everyone had to go to the hospital, and Damien snapped out of Ariana's control again. It was almost scary to see — he was almost violent to her. Then he ran from the hospital, so I followed him. I figured _this_ time I could help him. But by the time I caught up to him, Ariana was very close, too. I don't even know how she followed us so easily, it's like— like she could track us down or something. Damien told me to run away, that he couldn't escape her, and I— I did it." He looked down, sorrow and shame mixing on his face. "I ran away, I climbed my way to the roofs of Chicago, and when Ariana found Damien, I was right there to look over the scene. She— she bit him in the neck, and— I don't know how, but— she _tore his throat out_— and—" his voice died in his throat as he broke into silent sobs.

"I'm sorry, Mark" Jenny said, reaching out to take his hand in hers. "But I need to ask something else. Did she drink his blood ?" Tearing out someone's throat wasn't the typical vampire way, as far as she knew, but Ariana might be a one-off case.

He looked up and straight into her eyes, and she could see his brain process the information. She'd asked a simple question, but it's not like pop culture wasn't all over vampires at the moment. Of course he'd guessed what she meant to ask.

"I — no. I don't think she did. She just killed him, and butchered his body, but I don't think she drank his blood. I mean, she didn't _drain_ him or anything."

Before he could ask any of the questions that already showed on his face, Brian asked something else. "Did you notice anything else ? Anything strange about her ? Something weird about her appearance, maybe ?"

Mark paused, trying to remember everything. "I don't think s— wait a minute. When I talked to Damien, that last night, he told me something about her eyes. He said they were red, that she was using colored contacts."

Jenny looked at Brian, hoping he would know what that meant. She knew of the bloodsuckers and their golden eyes, of the empaths and their silver eyes, but she'd never heard of a creature with _red_ eyes so far. Unfortunately, he looked just as confused as she was.

"I see" Lynne said. "Thank you, Mark. And I'm sorry you had to go through this."

"I— it's okay" he said. "Did you learn what you needed ? Are you going to— stop her now ?" Something in his tone indicated Jenny he wanted to do more than _stop_ her.

"I think it's too early to tell. But I'm sure the information _will_ be helpful."

Mark looked skeptical. "So you still don't know what she is. What did you think she was, anyway ? A vampire ?"

Jenny watched Lynne and Brian exchange a glance, and decided to intervene. "Brian, we know someone working for the Volturis are here with Ariana. And if Ariana's going to try and kill him, Mark deserves to know the truth." _And be taught how to fight back_, she added mentally. She knew Brian wouldn't take that decision by himself — he'd have to ask Louisa first.

Brian nodded, thoughtful. "You're right, I guess."

"One more thing" Jenny said, turning to Mark. "I wanna try something against Ariana tomorrow. So I'll need you to tell me more about Ariana later. If you don't mind."

He frowned, darting his eyes from Brian to Jenny. "Sure, I guess."


	7. Chapter 6 — Dance to the Death

Ariana woke up in her bed, strangely delighted and happy. As she slowly emerged from the depth of sleep, she noticed a warm presence next to her. Rolling under the covers, she noticed it was Blaine.

A flash of panic finished to wake her up. _Have we…?_ No, surely she'd remember it. Trying to focus, she managed to bring back memories of last night. The date, Mark being there, the ponies, Blaine walking back to her room and—

She remembered losing all control over herself, pulling him inside and throwing him on the bed, but then, strangely enough, he'd shown resistance. She hadn't seen anyone resist her so much since… well, since Damien in his last moments. The memory had acted like a cold shower, and Blaine had held her in his arms as she cried herself to sleep, not asking about anything.

Could it be Blaine would end up the same way Damien had ? She hoped not — he was too handsome to die that way. But then again, Damien had also been handsome. Sighing, she decided to wait and see. Maybe he'd just been nervous about _doing it_ so early in their relationship.

Sound outside tore her from her reflections. If students were up already, someone might notice Blaine was not in his room — or worse, notice he was _here_. Sure, _she_ knew they hadn't done anything inconvenient, but the rumors wouldn't be so kind. She shook him awake.

"Hey" he said, still half-asleep.

"Blaine. Get up."

His eyes fluttered around the room, and fell on the clock she had on a wall. That snapped him awake. "Oh, crap. I should go to my room ; get dressed." She looked confused — his uniform was right there — and he answered her unasked question. "I can't wear that uniform _again_. Not after I've worn it the whole day yesterday. I've got a spare uniform in my room."

Ariana nodded as he put his old uniform back anyway — so as not to walk back to his room in his underwear, she guessed.

"See you in class" he said as he left.

Slightly stunned at his quick departure, Ariana blinked a few times at the door from her bed, before finally getting up and into her bathroom.

When she was finally ready — she'd chosen a very classical style today, a green dress with feathers of a darker green at the hem and along the sleeves and the corsage, black boots, and white foundation as the only makeup she was wearing — it was already time for class. She hadn't intended to have breakfast anyway — she needed to skip meals regularly to keep her perfect silhouette.

Wednesday morning opened with a dance class for Ariana. She didn't even know high schools _had_ dance classes, but she didn't mind. It was definitely more interesting than their usual classes, and more useful for a princess like her. The teacher, however was an old man, and Ariana soon doubted he could teach _her_ anything. As soon as she entered, she spotted Blaine in the crowd of students gathered on one side of the room. She headed in his direction, but was stopped by the man's voice.

"You must be Miss Seagull, are you not ?" She nodded, a little weary. What did that disgusting old man want from her ? Her mind started to form unwanted images of rape and abuse, but she shoved them away. If he ever tried, she'd show him what was the cost for attacking the future Vampire Queen.

The old man hadn't noticed what had gone through her mind and had apparently given her an instruction. Putting on her most pleasant smile, she asked, "Sorry, what was that ?"

He had a soft laugh. "Miss Seagull, I'd like you to show us what you can do. Most of us here know each other for over a year now, we need to know what _your_ level is if I want to teach you properly."

She smiled again — this time, it was more of a predatory grin. "Of course." As soon as the music started, she walked a few steps, then twirled around herself. A basic move if there ever was one, but it always had its effect — especially with such a _gorgeous_ dress.

And an effect it had. Everyone cheered and clapped, and the instructor had an amazed smile on his lips. As he came close to her, she noticed how his eyes were dilated. For a moment, she thought it was desire, but then she realized it was the same expression Wes had had when she'd applied for the Warblers. "You're amazing, Ariana," he said — Ariana decided to be magnanimous and forgive him for using her first name without permission — "you should teach this class, not me."

Oh. No. That wasn't good. She had to remain hidden, not make waves. "Oh, why this was nothing. But I'm just a little girl, I'm sure you're more experienced." Luckily for her, the teacher didn't argue, nodded and resumed his class.

Turns out, he wasn't more experienced than Ariana. The class was boring, and they didn't learn anything useful — what was the point of those modern dances anyway ? She wanted to learn about ballroom dances, or ballet ! These choreographies they learned were stupid, and even worse, they didn't let _her_ shine as was proper ! Only one thought — _stay hidden, don't make waves_ — kept her sane.

At the end of the period, Ariana was barely containing her fury, and only Blaine taking her hand helped her calm down. That's when they heard a siren ringing through the hallways.

"What's going on ?" she asked Blaine.

"I don't know," he answered "but it must be important."

* * *

><p>Emmet opened the front door of Dalton Academy for Jenny right at the time they'd planned, and she hid in their choir room, knowing it wouldn't be used until the afternoon.<p>

Her plan was simple. They still didn't know what Ariana was — they knew she wasn't a vampire, yet she had connections to the Volturis, since she was supposedly the granddaughter of one of their leaders. Instead of trying to guess at random what she could be, Jenny had decided to keep checking what she _wasn't_. Namely, to verify if Ariana could be a witch. To do that, a simple illusion would do — if Ariana was a witch, or at least had a witch for a mother, she'd see through the illusion. That's what Louisa had taught her, at least.

Mark had provided with just the perfect illusion to create. When they had talked last night, he'd remembered one of her first night at the Thorn household, when they'd wanted to watch a scary movie. Her choice had been the first _Chronicles of Narnia_ movie. Jenny had been incredulous at that, but Mark had assured her the movie had terrified her — because of course everyone had agreed with her choice.

_And of course she wouldn't know it was originally a book_, Jenny guessed as she focused to form the illusion.

The process was simple, even if illusion wasn't one of her most developed talents. Forming an image in her mind, she manipulated the air in the entrance hall — she could see it through the open door — so that it would reflect light, taking on the appearance that she was picturing. She was already powerful enough to make it almost corporeal — making air solid was easier than she'd first expected when Louisa had showed her how. But she also knew she couldn't hold the illusion for long — a few minutes, maybe.

Luckily, the bell rang at that moment, and soon enough, students saw her illusion, and an alarm rang through the school. Soon enough, a group of students walked by her room, among whom there was a girl in a green dress — Ariana, Jenny guessed. Only she would get away with wearing _that_. Oh, and of course she was the only girl at school, so that helped, too.

The illusions, at Jenny's command, turned to Ariana all at once. She let out a scream, and one of the boys — Jenny guessed it was her current toy, Blaine — stepped between her and them. Curious to see what would happen next, Jenny made one of her illusions — the image of Mr Tumnus, the faun — walk in their direction with a menacing attitude. Blaine immediately attacked, beating the faun down in a flurry of violent punches and kicks Jenny wouldn't have expected of anyone in their right mind. But then again, knowing what she knew about Ariana, the boy was probably not in his right mind for the moment.

She made the other illusions move all at once as she let fake-Mr Tumnus vanish. Distracted by the cloud of smoke the illusion left behind, Blaine was promptly knocked out by a leopard, leaving Ariana defenseless.

That's when the girl snapped out of her terror — and only when she stopped did Jenny realize that Ariana had been screaming all along. She moved at great speed, too quick for Jenny to follow, even filled with the Power like she was right now. One by one, she tore through Jenny's illusion, tearing members with her bare hands and dancing out of the way when Jenny tries to make one of the illusions attack.

It took her only a few seconds to get rid of all the illusions but one — the lion-god Aslan. The girl, apparently not afraid anymore, grabbed a metal chandelier standing nearby, snapped it in two, and used one of the pieces as a lance to stab the lion.

Frowning, Jenny let go of the last illusion, then of the Power altogether. She was exhausted by the feat she'd just accomplished, but her brain was already processing all the information she'd just gained.

_Ariana doesn't have magic. She's not a witch_.

_Ariana has superhuman strength and speed._

_Ariana's not a vampire_.

What _was_ that girl ?

* * *

><p>After Ariana had vanquished the last of the Narnians — it had only taken her a moment to recognize them as such — the principal arrived in the entrance hall, looking furious.<p>

"What is going on here ?" he asked, almost screaming. Then he spotted Blaine, lying on the floor. "Mr Anderson ? Are you responsible for this ? I expected more from you !"

Ariana snapped at this. "Leave him alone, you faggot !" It wasn't Blaine's fault, it was those Narnians, they— !

She noticed everyone gasping around her and realized she might have overstepped. She wasn't even sure what the insult meant — Jane had used it a lot to describe her brother Alec when Ariana was still living with them, but Ariana had never dared ask her, not wanting to look ignorant.

Apparently, it wasn't as bad as the other students seemed to believe, because the principal looked at her, stunned, then seemed to calm down. "Someone will have to clean up this mess" he said.

Blaine had managed to get back on his feet, and immediately intervened. "I will, principal." The man nodded and disappeared back up the stairs. Soon, the alarm stopped, much to Ariana's relief.

The other Warblers gathered around Blaine, offering their help, and it only took them a few minutes to clean everything up — strangely enough, the Narnians hadn't left any corpse or blood, and they hadn't broken much beside the chandelier in the fight.

As she listened to them talking, she realized no one had really seen her fight — most of them apparently thought Blaine had scared them away. Had she really been _that_ fast ? She knew she was fast, but she had never realized just how much. Pleased that her cover hadn't been blown, she even decided to help them a little, but no one let her work, telling her she was above such menial tasks.

Sighing, she leaned against the staircase and watched them finish their work. When they were done, Blaine took her hand and they walked to the next class.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful ; boring classes, stupid classes, one nice class — but only because Blaine was there — and some more idiotic classes. The only really good moment of the entire day, in Ariana's opinion, had been when Blaine had used spent lunchtime trying to teach her football. She was sure she hadn't been as good as he had told her, but she had loved receiving those compliments anyway.<p>

After last period, Blaine was outside the class, waiting for her. When he saw her, he rushed to her side as she kept walking to her room and said, sounding a bit nervous, "Hey, I… I just got a call from a few friends of mine, they're coming over to Westerville in about twenty minutes, and… I'd like you to come with me. So I can introduce you to them."

Ariana stopped in her tracks, which seemed to surprise Blaine. She smiled reassuringly to him. "Yeah, okay. But what's the matter, Blaine ? You look upset."

Blaine looked down, apparently embarrassed. "Well, they're from McKinley — that's Kurt's former school, you see. They were his friends first, and–" His voice died in his throat, but Ariana understood.

"You're gonna have to tell them about him."

He looked strangely surprised by Ariana, as if she'd assumed wrong. "Well… I guess they heard from Kurt's stepbrother. But it's not just that. I… I told you, me and Kurt–"

Ariana didn't want to hear about it. Blaine had been confused, but it was over now. "Well, _you_ got over it, right ?"

He nodded, but didn't look any less nervous. "Still, I fear they might not like you. You know, on principle : you're my new girlfriend, and maybe they're going to dislike you on principle, especially since it's… you know… so _soon_."

Ariana giggled at his concern. "You shouldn't be worried about them liking me, silly ! Am I not the most likable young girl in the entire world ?" And there was that strange power she seemed to have, of course, but she couldn't tell him about it. Not yet. Hopefully not ever.

He smiled and kissed her lightly, then grabbed her hand. "Come on. I wouldn't want us to be late."

* * *

><p>As they entered the coffee shop where Blaine was supposed to meet his friends, Ariana started to feel slightly nervous. He led her to a table, where she saw four people sitting from afar : a freakishly tall and kind of fat guy, a moderately pretty girl with long dark hair and a loud voice, a fat black girl, and a pretty girl — though not as pretty as Ariana herself — with long blond hair.<p>

Blaine's friends, she realized, were much less _sexah_ than she had expected. But they were important to him, so Ariana had to make a good impression. Slightly nervous, she stopped a few feet away from the table, as Blaine greeted his friends. Moments later, Blaine snapped her out of her stupor by waving her to come nearby.

"Guys," he said as she walked as gracefully as possible to his side, "this is Ariana. She's… she's my girlfriend." He wrapped an arm around her waist as he said so, as if trying to emphasize his words. "Ariana, these are–"

He stopped when he saw their faces. All four of them reacted exactly the same way, gasping and looking somewhere halfway between disbelief and shock.

"Your _what_ ?" The black-haired girl said. "Because I am pretty sure you told me you were, and I quote, '100% gay' when we kissed for the second time."

"And what does Kurt have to say about this ?" the blonde girl said.

"Where is he anyway ?" the black girl added, practically at the same time.

Blaine was silent for a few minutes. "Wait… Finn didn't tell you ?"

The tall boy — Finn, Ariana guessed — looked clueless. "Told them what ?"

"Kurt's… Kurt's dead. He died last Monday. I thought you knew."

If the announcement that Ariana had shocked them, _this_ shocked them enough that they didn't react — not immediately. For a moment moment, nothing happened, Blaine's words almost echoing in the air. Then the meaning of those words hit them all at once.

"Oh God" the girl with black hair said, eyes widening. "Oh my God. I can't believe it."

"Wait…" Finn said. "That's… That's impossible. Burt doesn't even know." Ariana wondered who this Burt was, but no one bothered to explain her.

"I don't understand" the blonde girl said. "What happened ?"

"He exploded when I sang" Ariana said. The words had come out of her mouth, as if it was the most natural thing to say, and she immediately cursed herself — that wasn't the best way to put it. It almost made her sound responsible.

The black girl has been very still so far, but tears were streaming down her face. "What, that's it ?" There was much more strength and anger in her voice than her face would have indicated. "You came in and sang and he _exploded_ ? And I'm supposed to believe it ? What were you even doing in Dalton ?"

"Well I'm a student there" she answered, trying to stay calm at the underlying accusation that she was lying.

"Dalton's a school for _boys_" the blonde girl said, skeptical. She sounded controlled, but Ariana could sense some kind of tension under her every word.

"Yeah, Quinn," Blaine answered, "Ariana got some sort of special authorization." The blonde girl — Quinn — quirked an eyebrow, looking as skeptical as before, but didn't answer.

The black girl, on the other hand, wasn't done yet. "And what's that about you two being together ? Do you respect Kurt so little, Blaine ? It's been _two days_ !"

Ariana was sick of all those questions. As if they'd done something wrong by falling in love ! "Blaine realized he was mistaken about his sexuality after all." Of course, if his only previous experience with girls had been with the black-haired girl here, she understood him. But she couldn't exactly say that and not hurt their feelings. "He's mourning Kurt as a friend, but there was no reason for us to hold back our feelings."

The black girl opened her mouth to answer, looking furious, but the black-haired girl interrupted her. "Quit it, Mercedes. It's not Ariana's fault Blaine fell in love with her." Ariana noticed the way her pupils were dilated, just like Wesley's before. Finn's eyes were that way as well. But the other two girls weren't apparently affected by her power.

Mercedes glared at the other girl. "Of course, if Miss Rachel Berry says so." There was an underlying sentiment in there — Ariana guessed the two had their own issues with each other.

Blaine seemed to not notice how half of his friends — Quinn and Mercedes — were still far from friendly to Ariana, and decided it was settled. He walked around the table and sat on one of the available chairs, and Ariana followed and sat next to him.

"So… Ariana," Finn said, "you really are a pretty girl." Quinn glared at him when he said that, prompting Finn to tell her, slightly offended, "What ? It's true. It's not like I asked her out or anything." Turning back to Ariana, he resumed. "Anyway. What I meant to say is, we were coming to ask if Kurt and Blaine were coming to our Junior Prom. And… well, I guess Kurt's not coming, but if you and Blaine could make it, we'd be more than happy." Rachel nodded gleefully at this.

"Excuse me, what ?" Mercedes said. "Ever thought of actually _asking_ us first ?"

"Oh, come on, Mercedes !" Rachel said. "Quit being a drama queen." Quinn, next to the girl, sneered at that. "Blaine's a friend, and if he comes, he can come with his girlfriend, don't you think ?"

"I think this story doesn't fit together. And I'll figure out why. _You_" — she turned to Ariana — "think you can come waltzing in and replace Kurt, but I don't agree." She stood up, adding in an icy voice, "Now, if you don't mind, I'll go back to Lima and tell Burt that no one thought it necessary to warn him his son has passed away." Not waiting for an answer, she started to make her way out. A moment later, Quinn glared at Ariana one last time, then went after Mercedes.

"Don't worry" Rachel said. "Mercedes is just a diva like that. And I guess Quinn's just jealous her boyfriend complimented you."

Ariana shrugged. "It's okay" she said, putting on her best smile. It wasn't — it was another disaster, but Blaine didn't seem to mind. "I just hope they'll come around eventually."

Finn smiled brightly. "I'm sure they will, eventually. So, about prom ?"

Ariana smiled. Going to Prom with Blaine — even if it wasn't really their prom… "We'll be there, of course."

* * *

><p>When Tim made his way back home, he was glad to see his mother was already there.<p>

"Hey, Mom. We need to talk. Oh, and hi too, Kurt."

"What's going on, Tim ?" Cassie asked him.

Tim sat in a couch, and cast a glance at Kurt, who caught the meaning of it. "I'll leave you two alone" he said, leaving the room and going upstairs.

As Cassie sat next to him, Tim breathed in and tried to explain. "Mom, this morning, mythical creatures attacked Dalton." Cassie frowned for a moment, trying to tell if he was joking or not, then she nodded, waiting for more information. "Yeah, to be more accurate, they were very reminiscent of the Narnia movie. But that's not my point. Everyone seemed convinced that they were real, but… not me. I mean, it's weird enough that they're fantasy creatures, but I _knew_ they weren't real. I could see that it was just an illusion. Somehow."

Cassie nodded slowly. "And what happened then ?"

"The… illusions… they attacked Ariana, but she fended them off. I think — there was a blurry move around her, and then the illusions vanished. And I sticked around after that — yeah, I skipped a couple classes for that, and I know it's wrong, but wait for it — Jenny was there all along."

Cassie's eyes widened. "Jenny… Donna ? From Forks ? So she's a student at Dalton too now ?"

Tim shook his head. "No, but Jacob and Emmet are, so I knew she was still around. They don't know me, so it's okay most of the time. Anyway. What do you think ?"

Cassie didn't even think about it for a split second. "Those illusions you saw were probably made by magic."

"But I thought only women could be witches ? So why did I see it ?"

"I told you I met someone in Forks who helped me with my talents. He explained me how this worked. The talent is akin to a gene, if you want. Only girls with the genes are actually witches, but boys can have the gene too. Actually, he had determined that all the children of a witch up until her oldest daughter got the gene. The girl was a witch, and her older brothers had the gene and could pass it on too."

Tim thought he started to understand. "But the boys with the gene, they're not completely normal either, are they ?"

"Exactly. It varies from an individual to another, but men with the gene tend to be unaffected by magic, up to a certain level. It's not all the time — for instance, you didn't say anything about _my_ illusions, but then again this is my strongest talent, and I've never heard of a man that wasn't affected by healing spells, either. But sometimes you'll see through an illusion, or not be burned by a fire, and you'll know there was magic at work."

"Okay." It was strangely… comforting, knowing he wasn't entirely human. The realization confused him, but he decided to study his feelings later. "So… you think that Jenny is the witch that made those illusions ?"

Cassie nodded. "In all likelihood. After all, her father's the one who taught me all I knew. That he learned it all from Jenny's mother — or that he met her _because_ he knew all that — would make perfect sense to me."

"And what do we do about her, then ? I mean, she seemed to be on our side here."

"We have to meet her, of course."

* * *

><p>Jenny's report of the morning had thrown the team in confusion. They had eliminated one more option as to what Ariana <em>wasn't<em>, but were nowhere closer to finding out what she was. Eventually, Brian decided that just sitting in a couch and browsing the Internet at random wouldn't help. Instead, he decided to call for backup. Namely, Agent Parere.

"Brian ?" she asked in a hurry as soon as she picked up, sounding worried. "Is everything okay ?"

"Yeah, yeah, no one's hurt or anything. We're just having a lot of trouble finding out what Ariana is, and I'm not gonna let anyone do anything directly against her until I know what she can do, and what her weaknesses are."

"I take it she's not a vampire, then."

"Nope, Mrs Boss. As far as we know, she doesn't drink blood, although she seems to have teeth solid enough to tear someone's throat. Also, she's got red eyes, doesn't seem to be an empath either, she has vampire-level strength and speed, and she doesn't have magic. Didn't even see through what Jenny described as an 'intentionally super-weak illusion'. And finally, she has an ability that makes most people worship her, and sometimes even lust for her."

"That's… puzzling."

"So it doesn't ring a bell to you either ?"

"No. I've fought supernatural forces for fourteen years, but I never heard of anything like that. But I think I know who might tell me. I'm going to Forks right away."

"Gonna ask Lewis ? Couldn't you send someone ?"

Parere laughed. "I could, but would he talk to them ? That, and there's nothing I can do here that I can't do from Forks."

Brian knew better than to question her decision — even with such a flimsy explanation. _Especially_ with such a flimsy explanation. "Say hello to Hugo for me." _Tell him I love him_.

"I will."

"Oh, and, one more thing… I need your authorization to train someone."

She paused for a second. "Who ?"

"His name's Mark Thorn. He's seventeen — that's young, I know, but… I don't intend to have him join the Unit or anything."

"Then why do you want to train him ?"

"Well, he— this boy lost his whole life because of Ariana. She almost tried to kill him, too. And honestly — I think he's going to do something stupid."

"So you want to train him precisely to do that ?"

"I want to train him so I can keep an eye on him. And if he does attempt something, then maybe he'll stand a chance at surviving it."

Louisa chuckled so softly that, without his own improved senses, Brian might not have heard it. "I see. Yes. If you really think it's the best thing to do. You know, if you don't intend to recruit him, you didn't really need my permission. Just remember not to break our rules."

"I won't. Of course not."

"Then who you're teaching to fight vampires is not really my business."

Brian sighed. "Very well. Thanks, Louisa." Just as he said the name, he realized that was probably the first time he called her that since he'd learned her identity.

She probably noticed as well — something shifted in her tone when she answered. "Good night, Brian. I've got a plane to catch now."

She hung up before he could answer.


	8. Chapter 7 — Dive Into The Heart

Hugo woke up to a message from Brian asking him to call as soon as possible. He had gone to bed early last night — like every night since Brian and the others left — and hadn't managed to fall asleep very quickly, as per usual, but his phone's battery had died out in the night. Sleep hadn't come easy for Hugo for months now, since Joan's death, even when he had Brian's presence to comfort him.

A little puzzled, he called. Even if it was a Thursday, there was not much for him to do at work, so he had plenty of time for whatever Brian needed. And it was not like Hugo himself didn't crave for the sound of his lover's voice.

Brian knew the exact time Hugo would look at his phone in the morning — of course he would know that — and was probably expecting the call, because he answered almost instantaneously.

"Hey" Brian said, and just behind this word, Hugo could hear his… was that anticipation ?

"Hey yourself."

"How're you doing?"

Hugo couldn't help himself from sighing deeply. In Forks, as the Mayor, he couldn't let anything show in front of his staff, but this was Brian he was talking to. "Same as usual. Not much planned for today." With a chuckle — maybe a little forced — he added, "Not much planned for at least a month, really, and it looks like it's not going to change anytime soon."

He expected Brian to answer with some teasing, but Brian stayed silent. After a while, Hugo realized what Brian was waiting for. "I—" he started, his voice cracking a little, "I can't sleep. I miss you." It was a relief to admit it, and Hugo wondered if Brian's empath powers worked through the phone, letting him know what Hugo needed to say before he himself knew it. Probably not.

"I miss you too, Hugo. You have no idea how much I'd like to be with you right now." Hugo had a pretty good idea, actually, of how much Brian felt like he had to watch over him.

"Well, hurry up with your mission, then." There was no underlying accusation — they both knew just how important that mission could be if it was a success, and even though Hugo would have rather joined them, he wasn't sure he was ready to go up against another teenage vampire. And there were his responsibilities as Mayor, too.

"Oh, right, the mission !" Brian answered. "That's why I wanted you to call me, actually."

Hugo frowned. "Everything going okay ?"

"Well, nobody's hurt, if that counts as okay. Nobody we know, at least. The girl has a coven of vampire watching over her, and _they're_ killing people, but we couldn't track them down yet. There's that, and then there's the problem that the girl herself is not a vampire."

Hugo wasn't entirely surprised by that — after all, the reason Brian was on the case was Louisa's suspicion that Ariana was more than met the eye. And Louisa's intuition tended to be good. "So what is she ?"

"That's what I'm getting at. We don't know. There are a few things we know, but we couldn't deduce anything from it, and neither did Parere. So she's coming to Forks."

"She wants Lewis's opinion."

"Yeah. And a look at his library of all things occult, too."

"So… What's the connection with me ?"

"Well, I just— thought I'd let you know she was coming."

"Brian."

"What ?"

"You're terrible at lying to me."

Brian chuckled softly. "Well, at least you're still able to notice it. You're right. I thought— maybe you could help them ? I mean, I know you agreed with me that you shouldn't come with us, but you still wanted to, so I figured you might appreciate getting to help us another way."

Hugo smiled — Brian knew him a little too well. "All right. I'll see what I can do. You know when she'll be there ?"

"She should already be in Forks, if I know her. She'll have rushed as fast as possible from DC."

"Okay. I'll go straight to Lewis's then. Talk to you later. Hopefully with the answer you need. Love you."

"No," and the teasing side of Brian was there all of a sudden, "_I_ love _you_."

"You do realize that's not actually a counter-argument, right ?"

"Damn, fooled again by the power of logic !" Brian laughed, and Hugo couldn't help but laugh along.

For a moment, there was a comfortable silence between the two of them, then Hugo said, "I'm really going now." Brian tried to get him to banter some more, but Hugo hung up before he got the chance.

* * *

><p>When he reached Lewis's house, Hugo was not surprised to see Louisa already there. Apparently, neither were the two of them surprised by his visit.<p>

"Did Brian tell you I was coming ?" he asked Louisa. Aside from her hair that now looked like actual silver, she had barely changed since she had left Forks — when Joan was two years old and she faked her own death. Of course, she had explained to Hugo why she had — having become a hybrid, she didn't want to threaten her friends and her daughters, and had decided to take the opportunity to form what became the Special Cases SHS Unit.

The woman shook her head. "No, but I expected him to contact you. I do know him a little, you know" she added with a smile. "So, I guess he already filled you in, too." Hugo nodded. "Good. Lewis was about to tell me what he knew."

The scientist, who had just entered the room with his laptop on hand, looked a little embarrassed. "I— I don't know exactly what Ariana Seagull is. But I do have a theory." He placed the laptop on the table in front of the others and navigated his folders as he spoke. "See, you told me Alice Cullen had informed the Unit that Ariana was Nickalas Volturi's granddaughter. Aro's daughter. And your men assumed that Ariana, just like Aro, was born before her father was turned, and was turned herself as a teenager. Now, we know that's not the case, because she's not a vampire. But your men lacked some precious information that I managed to find back."

He showed them a picture of a bunch of kids — probably from the school book or something similar — who looked about ten years old, and zoomed on one of them, a little girl. She had long black hair, pale skin and blue eyes, and the kids around her — all boys — looked at her with an adoring expression. "This picture was given to me by a friend of mine," Lewis explained "a witch who used to live here in Forks until a few months ago, when her husband and her son's boyfriend were killed by the Cullens. It's her son's class back when they lived in Chicago, and this girl is the reason they moved out. Her name is Ariana Seagull."

"And she looks just like _our_ Ariana would look at ten." Louisa said. "When was it taken ?"

"About six years ago. This is proof that Ariana does age. At an apparently normal rate."

"Unless it's a different girl" Hugo objected.

Lewis nodded. "It's possible, but as I said, she's the reason my friend — Cassie — moved from Chicago to Forks. See, this young girl had a tendency of being very well seen by everyone around her — especially boys her age — and she abused that to hurt her son once. From what Cassie had gathered, he'd been a little too friendly to a boy Ariana had set her sights on. She gathered her clique, used her ability to completely paralyze him while she pushed all the other boys to beat him up. He ended up at the hospital with multiple fractures, a head trauma — nothing permanent, thankfully — and I suspect, a trauma on a more psychological level."

"It does sound like the kind of thing our Ariana would do" Louisa said. Hugo wondered if Brian had told her about a more specific event to make her believe that.

"I was very intrigued by that story, but I never managed to find Ariana. That was around the time you sent your men after the Seagull coven, Louisa, and they went into hiding. But with Cassie's help, I investigated about her ability around town — her mesmer, as I dubbed it."

"I don't really see how that's helping us" Louisa interrupted him, sounding a little annoyed. "We know of that ability of hers already."

Lewis chuckled. "Maybe you don't know _all_ about it. But you're right, I digress. I was just using the mesmer as a more conclusive proof that this was one and the same girl. Which, in turn, means that she can age."

"Well, yes, but we already know she's not a vampire. What does that change ?" Hugo asked, intrigued — and knowing Lewis had a point in there somewhere and was just having a hard time getting to it, as usual.

"Well, you neglected that Ariana is Aro's daughter. As soon as you knew she wasn't a vampire, you assumed she had to be her adopted daughter. If I am to believe what you told me, Louisa, even Alice Cullen jumped to that conclusion." He paused as he was browsing his computer's folders even more. "I think that's a wrong assumption. I think she really is Aro's biological daughter. And considering that she ages at a human rate, I would think that she was born about sixteen years ago."

"So she was conceived by Aro… as a vampire ?" Hugo asked.

"I never heard of vampires being able to reproduce" Louisa said.

"That's because vampires tend to mate with each other. And when one falls in love with a human," — Louisa snickered at that — "yes, Louisa, I do believe vampires are capable of that, ask our daughter if you don't believe me. Anyway, usually, when that happens, they turn their human companion so that they can both be vampire mates."

"I'm confused." Hugo admitted "What difference does it make that vampires mate with each other or with humans ?"

"Vampirism is carried by an magical organism similar in structure to a virus. It cannot reproduce sexually, and in fact, cannot reproduce at all unless its host is dead. When that happens, it modifies the DNA and forms a vampire. Otherwise, the organisms aren't numerous enough to fully modify the host's DNA, a hybrid is formed and the virus dies in the process. When two vampires mate, their gametes are basically dead cells both holding the virus — the cells can't form a new organism because they're dead, and the virus can't convert anything because everything already is. But, and that is only a theory that has never been proven right or wrong, if a vampire and a human had sex, it could be that a new organism could be formed — one that has a half of vampire DNA."

"Somehow I find it unlikely that no vampire ever raped a human in the past" Hugo said.

"You're right, but there are no known case of survivors. So far."

"This is going to be inappropriate," Louisa said, "but what about Jenny ?"

Lewis blushed — and frankly, Hugo couldn't blame him. Still, he answered that. "Well, I actually asked her to be my test subject." He ignored the other two's looks — Hugo was shocked, and Louisa was a mix of intrigued and amazed. "After a few months of convincing, she agreed reluctantly, and I found that her own magic simply interferes with the virus. I would need other witches to test on, but it seems to me that your magic seems to interact with the virus in a way. You" — he turned to Louisa — "were fed on by an empath, and his virus was enhanced to the point of turning about thirty percent of your DNA. On the other hand, the virus is outright killed when Jenny and Emmet— well, you know. I suspect that that's related to how magic flows through a witch's body."

"So…" Hugo said, trying to process all the information — and God why did Lewis always feel the need to go on tangents like that ? — "Ariana would be half-human, half-vampire."

"Exactly. It would explain the she has the physical capabilities of a vampire, at least. And there are myths about it."

Louisa chuckled. "You of all people should know that not all myths are true."

"But they tend to have an origin somewhere" Lewis replied, unperturbed.

Louisa shrugged. "Okay. How do we neutralize her, then ?"

Lewis scratched the back of his head. "Well, that's the issue. I don't know for sure. We're going to have to search through my library."

"_All_ of it ?" Hugo said. "Lewis, that thing is _huge_ !"

"Not all of it. It is sorted, you know. Still, I have…" — his gaze grew distant as he searched his memories — "a hundred and two books about vampires, and I read seven of them."

Louisa sighed. "So we have to search through ninety-five books, knowing that the books you don't read are usually those you deem unreliable. To find crucial information. Hurray."

Hugo shrugged. "I always thought you were determined in every situation. _Crazy_ determined."

Louisa glared at him. "Very funny. Let's get started, then." She disappeared into the staircase, going upstairs to Lewis's library.

Lewis stared at Hugo, a little uncomfortable. "Go ahead," Hugo told him, "I'll warn Brian and the others about what you said."


	9. Chapter 8 — Working Together

The sound of Brian's voice on the telephone woke Jenny up earlier than she had planned to. Well, she guessed it was a good thing to warn Hugo of what was going on, but did he have to be so _loud_ ? Still, if _she_ was awake…

"Stop pretending you're sleeping, you two" she said, faking annoyance. Immediately, on both sides of the bed, Jacob and Emmet shuffled to greet her with similar goofy grins.

They exchanged a look for a brief moment. "We didn't want to wake you up" Jacob said, making Jenny sigh. She hadn't been very sure about the whole concept of polyamorous relationship, but her boys had surprised her by becoming close friends. Maybe a little too close, considering how often they seemed to conspire together _against_ her.

She glared at Jacob. "I'm the one who drives you to school."

"And that is completely unnecessary since we are both faster on our feet than a car" Emmet said, teasing.

"Well, if that's how you take it…" Jenny said, turning around to bury her head in the pillows. She was almost immediately forced out of the sheets when both boys started tickling her. Between fits of giggles, she tried to scold them, but that was no easy fit when she had to catch her breath every other word. She ended up taking the upper hand by weaving a spell to throw the pillows in their faces, using the brief distraction to wrap them with the sheets.

"Getting kinky, Jen ?" Jacob said, raising an eyebrow.

She smiled, looking over his form wrapped tightly in the cover — tightly enough that she didn't need to use much of her memory to picture his body — but shook her head. "Tempting. But no, you're gonna be late to school and that'd make me a crappy girlfriend, wouldn't it ? Now get up and get ready to leave !"

* * *

><p>After Hugo called Brian back to tell him about Lewis's theory, the blonde decided to do research on his own. Sure, Lewis's books would probably provide with more reliable information, but Brian had learned not to neglect the power of a simple Google search. He spent the better part of an hour reading about legends and urban legends about "halfs", as Lewis had called them. Not that there weren't other names for the concept, as usual.<p>

He was distracted from his reading when he heard someone coming down the stairs. He looked over his shoulder to see a still-sleepy Mark, complete with bed head and pyjamas.

"Hey there" Brian said, and he couldn't help but smile at the start Mark gave.

The boy turned to Brian, blinked a few times and managed to mumble in response "Hey. Thought everyone would be out."

"Had to do some research here. And I told you last night I wanted to train you. But not right now, 'cause you look like you might fall asleep on me any moment" he said, grinning widely.

Mark only shrugged. "Sorry. Been a while since I could sleep in like that, between running from Ariana and trying to live on my own."

Brian nodded, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy. "I see." More than Mark would probably know — after all, the empath that made Brian a hybrid had harassed him for months as she tried to bring him further into despair, and he'd been alone to deal with her. Even if he didn't consciously know about the empath back then, and was running away purely on instinct, he still understood.

Brian shook the memories away as Mark slumped into the couch next to him. "So," he said, "how about I make us lunch, then I start the whole training business ?"

Mark glanced at him. "I don't think I trust you with cooking."

Brian's grin widened at that. "Then I'll have to prove you wrong. Hugo taught me a lot of stuff when we were young."

That comment was met by a frown. "Who's Hugo ?"

"My—" He needed a moment to find the right word — weirdly enough, they never had to put a word on their relationship since they had renewed it. "My husband. Well, not legally, but in every other sense of it."

Mark looked slightly stunned at that. "I hadn't pegged you as gay."

"I'm sure many people would say the same about you." And okay, Brian had cheated with his empathic sense on that one, but the look on the boy's face was just _priceless_ enough to make Brian laugh. Still, there was more to that look, a dose of gratefulness, soon followed by a smile on the boy's face.

Brian left him there to make that lunch, and considering what they had in the house, he decided to make a Belgian lunch he got from Lynne : tomatoes stuffed with shrimps, with a salad and fries on the side — he actually made some extra for the others, just in case. The simplicity of it was compensated by the fact that it allowed for a very neat presentation, getting Mark to stare at his plate for a second, and Brian almost thought the boy would accuse him of having somehow ordered that.

When they were done with their food, Brian decided it was time for the more serious business. "So. Training." He paused for a moment, trying to think it through. "I think you mentioned going to a military school, right ? I need to know what kind of things they taught you there, maybe see you in action if I can find a place where you can do that. Then I'll tell you what I know about vampires. Other creatures can wait for now. And I need to see how good your reflexes are, too."

* * *

><p>After Jenny drove Jacob and Emmet to Dalton, she sneaked into the school's library to research the events in Chicago that Mark described, just in case she could find any useful information about Ariana. She spent a good few hours there, not learning much — there was a mention of Ariana Seagull but it was years old — until she gave up and left. She intended to go back to their house to ask Brian if there were any news from Forks yet, but that plan was interrupted when she found a boy standing beside her car. And even if she didn't know him much, Tim's features were familiar enough to recognize instantly, even wearing the Dalton uniform. Also, Jenny had had to deal with the short-lived crush Joan had had on him, so she remembered him all right.<p>

Not that his presence here was any less surprising. "Tim ? Tim Chey ? What're you doing here ?" she asked as she joined him.

Tim shifted in front of her — she was slightly taller than him, and frankly, she had sounded a bit aggressive with her question, but frankly, she didn't like the coincidence. Tim's family had vanished from Forks at the same time Joan had come back from her first trip to see the Volturi in Italy, so his presence here, in Ariana's school was a little suspicious.

"Um" he said. "I— okay, look, my mom had prepared this speech to get your attention, but I can't seem to remember it at the moment, so whatever. I saw what you did yesterday. And I know it's you, and I know you're a witch. There you go."

At hearing this — and how could a boy know she did magic, this made no sense —Jenny's first thought was that he was an enemy and she should immediately take him down. She didn't have her sword, of course — it was in the car to avoid attention — so she wove a spell to immobilize him against the car.

"What do you want ? Who're you working for ? The Volturi ?"

To her surprise, Tim shrugged off the spell — even though that should be impossible, the spell was still in place, she could _see_ that it was intact — and raised his hand in an attempt to calm her down. "No ! As I told you, my mom sent me here. She wants to meet you."

Jenny blinked. "Why ?" She didn't know Tim's mother, but unless _she_ was the one working for the Volturi, this whole situation made little sense to Jenny.

Tim looked around them, and lowered his voice. "We know about Ariana, and we want to help you. Look, couldn't you just come with me ?"

"What if I don't trust you ? I'm not following you into a potential trap."

Tim nodded. "I get that. Look, we'll get into your car, and you can drive, take me hostage, whatever. There's a coffee shop nearby, my mom's waiting there to meet you. Your call."

Jenny stared at him for a moment. "What the hell happened to you, Tim ?"

The boy looked down to his feet. "It's complicated. I'm not even sure I understand myself." Looking back up to Jenny, he added, "So… what do you say ? Are you coming or not ?"

Jenny sighed in frustration. She didn't really want to play the role of the idiot who falls blindly into a trap, but she didn't really see Tim Chey as a tool of the Volturi. Then again, she didn't picture him finding out about Jenny being a witch either., so maybe she was just too trusting. Still, Tim said his mother could help, and Jenny and the others couldn't really _refuse_ help right now.

So she made her decision — hoping it was the right one. "Okay. I'll go to that coffee shop. Then I'll decide if I want to go inside and meet your mom or not."

Tim smiled brightly and nodded vehemently. "Okay ! Great !"

He didn't make a single move, however, until Jenny stared at him and crossed her arms. He snapped out of his enthusiasm and hurried to the passenger seat of Jenny's car. The girl quickly texted Brian to let him know of what she was about to do, then she got in as well.

The drive took about fifteen minutes during which Tim ignored or eluded all of Jenny's questions regarding what would happen there. When they arrived at the coffee shop, she was lucky enough to find a parking spot right in front of the establishment, allowing her to remain in the car for a moment and focus.

One of her talents — that had mostly remained unused for months now — immediately kicked in. "There's a witch in that coffee shop" she said, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible.

Tim didn't look very surprised. "Yeah. My mom's a witch, too, but how did you know ?"

Jenny shrugged, not wishing to give any information. Instead, she studied the place — no traps were in place that she could see. She tried to weave a detection spell that her father taught her, one that would indicate the presence of most supernatural creatures, but either it failed or there were none inside — Jenny had never gotten to practice it much, and besides, her father could only teach her the theory, which was a much slower way of learning magic.

_Well, I came all the way, guess I should try it_. She sent another text to Brian to tell her the exact location of the coffee shop — just in case — and nodded to Tim. "Okay. Let's go." Before they left, she grabbed her sword and strapped it to her back, hiding it with her coat. Of course, Tim noticed, but he didn't comment, and besides, the point was mostly to go in there unnoticed, but not unarmed.

The boy led the way inside, and Jenny followed him straight to a table where a woman sat alone. Shorter than Jenny, she had Tim's dark brown eyes and they had a very similar slender build, but her hair was dark brown where his were a sandy blonde. Still, the air of family was obvious there. She wore a black trench coat, and Jenny immediately suspected her to hide something underneath — just like she herself was with her sword. Finally, Jenny's senses definitely pinned her as the witch she had detected earlier.

"Mom," Tim said as he sat next to her, "this is Jenny."

"Nice to meet you" the woman said, holding out her hand.

Jenny paused for a second before sitting down in front of her and shaking her hand. "I wish I could say likewise, Mrs Chey, but I still have no idea why I'm here or even if this is a trap or not."

"Call me Cassie, please. And I understand that you don't feel very certain about this meeting. My son and I were… confronted to Ariana once, so to speak. That's why we moved to Forks. I was a friend of your father's, you know. He told me he wanted to keep you away from what the two of us did, and now that I know you're a witch, I can understand why."

"What ?" Jenny erupted. "What were you doing with my dad ?"

"Probably not what you're imagining" Cassie said with a faint smile. "He's the one who realized what I was and taught me most of the things I know about magic." Jenny promised herself to ask her father a confirmation as soon as possible. "Anyway, a few months later, we had trouble with the Cullens. I assume you know who the Cullens really are, since you seemed close to them."

"Yeah. I know who they were" Jenny said, hoping Cassie would get the hint at the use of past tense — that they were dead, and that Jenny had had a hand in it. "What kind of trouble ?"

"You remember Nick ?" Tim asked her. Jenny nodded — she knew pretty much everyone her age at Forks High, even though she wasn't close to many of them, including Nick. He'd been one of the jocks, a baseball player, if she recalled correctly. "He was the first of many to die. Everyone cried for Britney Epieu, but when her mother left town, other people were killed in town, and the police tried to cover it up. Nick was one of them. If we hadn't been dating, I would probably not have known either."

"I managed to get a look at the body," Cassie said, "and your father had told me enough about vampires and the Cullens to recognize what I had in front of me. And then…" Her voice cracked.

"And then Dad died too" Tim finished.

"That's all very nice," Jenny said, "but what does that have to do with Ariana ?"

"I'm just trying to show you we're on the same side. We have the same enemies. Ariana, the Cullens… Probably others that I don't even know of. I want to help you against her."

"I'm sorry, but I don't see how you can help me. Especially if my father's the one who taught you what you know."

"As I said, we have a… history with her. I know a few things that even Lewis might not. After all, we didn't exactly spend most of our time talking about an elusive little girl. For instance, did you know that Ariana's ability, her mesmer, binds people to her ? To a certain extent, that is. And it's especially true about the one she chooses as a lover, in this case, a student named Blaine Anderson. If anything bad should happen to her, Blaine would likely die too. And it's likely that the other people bound to her would suffer as well."

"Wait," Jenny said, "like a Knight is to his Witch ?"

Cassie smiled. "Interesting comparison. Yes, I guess it works. The connection seems to be magical, too. I managed to find a way to break it, at least I think so, but here's my issue : I'm not powerful enough to put it in action."

Jenny understood. "_That's_ why you need me."

"Yes. In exchange, I could teach you more about your talents. I know for a fact that Lewis alone can't make up for my five years of practice. Plus, there's strength in numbers. It's not like you and those two boys you have by your sides would be enough. She can be rather terrifying, you know."

Jenny smirked. "We're not alone" she said, and left it at that. "I think we might have reached an agreement, but you'll have to meet the rest of my team."

Cassie looked suddenly nervous. "A team ?"

Jenny nodded. "Yes. You'll have to meet them. And they may decide not to accept your offer, too."

Cassie thought about it for an overly long moment — to Jenny at least. "Well, I guess if I want to help I'm going to have to trust you too."

"Who said I trusted you ?" Jenny said as she got up. Then, realizing her words may have been overly brutal, she added with a smile. "I think you're honest, but I'm sure you'll understand if I do some fact-checking. Especially since you mentioned my father." Cassie nodded at that. "Good. _If_ what I find satisfies me and the others are okay, I'll let you know where and when to meet us."


	10. Chapter 9 — Fight and Away

Jenny called Tim's mom later the same day to admit that her father had, in fact, confirmed Cassie's story. She had offered to introduce them to the team the next day, which Cassie had been more than happy to accept.

So here they were, on a Friday morning — Tim had been told to skip classes, and well, he wasn't going to pass on _that_ opportunity, supernatural monsters or not — parked in front of a completely ordinary house in Westerville. Very similar to their own, in fact, Tim noticed, albeit a little larger.

"So let me ask this one last time" Kurt said from the backseat of the car. "You saw a witch _apparently_ using illusions to attack Ariana, and you immediately trust them ?"

"Yes," Cassie answered, "I do. We need each other, and giving them my trust is the fastest way to earn theirs. Even if I wasn't sure I could trust Jenny Donna, I still would. And I am, in fact, certain that I can trust her."

"That's about as insane as me going to pat Ariana on the back and greeting her as a friend."

"You have no idea how insane _that_ would be" Cassie retorted. Tim felt she was thinking of something in particular, but nothing came to mind. Why couldn't he still remember anything of Ariana, six years ago ? He didn't know, and his mother had been pretty vague about what had happened.

It was 10am sharp, so Cassie exited the car without any further comment, and Kurt and Tim himself couldn't really do anything but follow. Despite the early hour, it was already hot out there, and Tim wondered how his mother could bear it under her long coat — probably something to do with magic, he guessed.

They were probably being watched, because the door opened, revealing Jenny behind it, before they even reached it. The blonde girl looked a little embarrassed — although why she did, Tim had no idea — and nodded silently in greeting. She then led the way to the living room, where they finally met Jenny's "team", as she called it.

Tim wasn't exactly sure what he expected, but it wasn't exactly _that_. Besides Jenny, Jacob and Emmet, whom he had already seen at Dalton, there were only three more people. One of them was a blonde young man, who leaned against the wall almost nonchalantly — but Tim's instinct, the part he had learned to assimilate with his latent magic, told him there was more to him. Another was a blonde woman, about the same age as Tim's mom, that the boy knew from having met her a few months ago, in Forks : she was Lynne Epieu, the detective who had interrogated every student about her daughter's murder.

The last one of the three was a blonde boy, and for a moment Tim's heart stopped beating. Not because of his good looks — although he _was_ positively gorgeous — but because of the memories he brought back. Aside from his hair color, he looked very similar to Nick — same lean body, but mostly, he had the same attitude, as if he expected a catastrophe to happen any moment and didn't quite care if it did. That same attitude that had first drawn Tim to his now-dead boyfriend.

The introductions went quicker than Tim had expected, and Tim got a name to place on the two people he didn't know of this group. The man was named Brian Hahnel, the boy Mark Thorn. They all settled in whatever chair they could get — the place was probably not built with nine people in mind, so the living room was getting a little crowded — and they got down to business. _To defeat the Ariana. Because a Disney reference should make this better, right ?_

Cassie explained that Tim and her had already met Ariana in the past, and that she and Jenny's dad had spent some time trying to figure out what she was back when they first met ; Jenny quickly confirmed that part of the story. Then, Cassie invited Kurt to tell his own story — and surprisingly enough to Tim, it was Mark who was the quickest to sympathize with him.

"So…" Brian started, "let me get this straight, Cassie — you don't mind if I call you Cassie, right ?" — she indicated that she didn't — "you offer us your knowledge, you offer to train Jenny, but why ? I'm sorry, but I learned that nothing ever came for free. What do you want ?"

Tim's mother took her time to answer. "I want to get rid of Ariana. I thought it was obvious enough. If it were just for me, I would have gone away again, but Tim is tired of running. So, as a mother, the least I could do is make sure she dies, or is neutralized, before she remembers my son and she, or one of her guardians, decide that we shouldn't be allowed to live any longer knowing about her."

Something in her voice almost made Tim want to cry. Maybe she'd been right all along, maybe they should have run. But it was too late now — it had been too late since they had decided to subtract Kurt from Ariana's range.

There was a moment of silence in the room, where practically everyone seemed frozen in thought, except for Detective Epieu, who nodded slightly. "I can understand that" she said after a while.

Cassie smiled at her dimly, and there was something in that exchange of gazes, that did more than the entire conversation had before — it created a bond between the two groups, Jenny's "team" on one hand and Tim, his mother and Kurt on the other. Tim wasn't entirely sure why or how, but it was there, and everyone else must have felt it too, because the atmosphere felt much less tense all of a sudden.

Finally, Brian got up on his feet. "Okay" he said. "I guess if Lynne trusts you, I can trust her." Tim was slightly confused by that : at no point had the detective said that she _trusted_ his mom, but Lynne only nodded to Brian as if to assure him that she did, in fact, trust Cassie. There was definitely something odd about this Brian. "We've got some news for you, then. We think we figured out what Ariana is — we think she's half vampire." Cassie nodded, unperturbed, at the announcement while Kurt was gaping next to Tim. He wasn't sure what he himself felt about it — and then realized it didn't really matter to him. "Which means we should be able to form a plan to capture her. My instructions are to get her alive, preferably, so we can use her against her family, but we can and will have to come up with several back-up plans to kill her if she's impossible to master."

"Good" Cassie said. "When would you be ready ?"

"Well, we still only have a few leads as to what her weaknesses are, but research is going smoothly, so we should know in a few days at most. So… I think we should be ready in about a week, if we take planning time into account. And preparation for our newest recruit" Brian added, nodding at Mark. "That makes me think… I'm guessing you two will need some training, too" he said, looking this time at Tim and Kurt.

The other boy seemed a little flustered at the sudden attention. "No, I— I don't think that's a good idea. I'm no one special or anything—"

"I would like to be trained" Tim said, interrupting Kurt. The offhanded offer and Kurt's comment had woken something in him — that desire to feel _special_, recently revived by the announcement that he had a part of magic in him. If he could be trained into fighting vampires, or half-vampires, whichever, he guessed he would achieve that. Maybe. Hopefully. If he didn't fail to learn — Tim wasn't the most athletic guy.

Brian nodded. "Perfect. And don't worry, Kurt, I'm not going to force you to do anything. If you feel like you should stay on the sidelines, it's your right to do so."

The other boy looked up to Brian. "Wait, no ! I mean, I could at least show you what I can do and see if you can teach me something more. Just in case, I mean."

An amused smile appeared on Brian's face for a moment. "As you wish, I guess. We'll start tomorrow."

* * *

><p>Late in the afternoon, Lynne got a call from Jason Curtis, of the Westerville Police Department. He'd called her often in the week since she and the others had arrived in Westerville, for a very simple reason — murders, the same kind of murders as Britney's, of course.<p>

The day before, at night, they'd found four bodies in the same place. This was already unusual — most of the others were isolated — but it didn't stop there. Of the four, only three had been drained of their blood in the clean, almost surgical way a vampire does : the fourth was butchered. It had been drained eventually, but a lot of blood had bled from the wounds first. Knowing what she knew about Ariana, this seemed to indicate that the girl herself had been there, and three other vampires with her.

She had asked Brian about it, and his knowledge of vampires, combined with the bite marks on the victims — that she had thoroughly analyzed and classified — seemed to indicate that these three vampires were the only ones in town. Or, well, the only ones in town who fed on humans and didn't hide the bodies, at least. Ariana's guardians — the Seagull coven, nearly decimated at the battle in Forks.

This new body didn't promise to teach her anything, but she went anyway, just in case — if she could identify another set of teeth, indicating another vampire, for instance. Knowledge was power, especially when treating with vampires who had played hide-and-seek with the Unit for over six years. That was the hard, sometimes boring job of a detective : gather the slightest hints and solve the entire puzzle with them.

The inspection of the body was, in fact, disappointing to Lynne, as she had feared it would be — it was one of the marks she'd already seen, which belonged, according to the Unit's analysis program, to a male teenager turned vampire. The victim, a teenage girls, was also the same as most of this vampire's previous victims, which further confirmed it was the same one.

She was about to leave and go back to the house, when she was stopped in her tracks by the detective Curtis.

"Epieu" he said. "I have a theory and I want to hear your thoughts on it."

Rising her eyebrows in a manner that could indicate both interest and annoyance, she simply looked at him and waited. He chose to believe in the former, apparently, because he elaborated his theory.

"We have victims with bite marks, okay ? And our coroner can't tell us what exactly makes such marks. Except for one victim, all the others fit in the same pattern — drained from their blood, and they can be classified in three categories : teenage girls, men of about forty, and women in their mid-twenties."

He paused, waiting for Lynne to say something. After a while, she said, "You told me to comment your theory. I can't do that if you don't say it."

With a chuckle, he continued. "I think we have three murderers. Probably working together. Their ritual is too similar to be a coincidence. And I think that ritual is vampire-related."

She took a deep breath, her face a perfectly expressionless mask — at least, she hoped. "Are you telling me our murderers are vampires ?"

"I'm not actually stupid, Epieu. Of course they're not vampires. Just a bunch of crazies who _think_ they are."

"What about the 'except for one victim' part ?" she asked.

"I guess they tried to initiate someone. Who apparently failed." He sighed. "For all we know, it was this girl."

"Your theory is… interesting, I guess. How am I supposed to help you with it ?"

"You had the same murders in Forks. I know of it — I did my research. Your own daughter was the first of them. You're a smart woman ; surely you must have _some_ idea to who did it, even if you couldn't prove it to a court. And I saw the way you analyzed the marks on every body. You know something that I don't." He smiled. "So I'm not asking you to tell me what it is, just to tell me if I'm getting close or not."

Lynne chuckled. "If there was something I knew and I didn't want to tell you, I wouldn't help you figure it out by yourself."

Curtis pouted for a moment. "I figured as much. Well, how about one favor, then ? I took my own pictures of the marks, have them in my office. Can you come with me and check them out ? See if you can add something to my analysis."

The tactic was obvious — he was hoping that, when presented to the actual puzzle, her instinct would take over and she would at least give out a hint. She'd have done the same in his position. And even if she was sworn to secret, well… Curtis reminded her of herself, a few months before. If Parere hadn't chosen to send her to Columbia and have her learn about vampires, she'd have been stuck in his situation. So she did sympathize with the man a little. That's probably why she agreed to go back to the department with him.

He led her to his office, and presented her the pictures he'd taken, with measurements that were incredibly similar to the ones she had taken — she had apparently been much too careless. He'd successfully noticed the similarity in the marks on similar victims, and noticed that the shape was vaguely human. In short, only his "common sense" was preventing him from guessing the truth. She remained silent while he showed her all of that.

Then he asked for her opinion, and all hell broke loose in the building.

They were warned by a couple of the characteristic detonations that gunshots caused, and bolted out of the office into the main space of the criminal brigade's department. One man — Lynne didn't know him — was on the ground, his neck twisted at a dangerous angle, and a woman Lynne had already seen a few times before was in the hands of the cause of this chaos.

He was a tall man, with white — literally _white_ — skin, straight black hair, and the golden eyes Lynne was all too familiar with. He was very thin, and didn't look very muscular, but Lynne knew better than to assume a vampire's strength based on his looks — the most powerful she had faced until now was Esme Cullen, who had passed as a ditzy, plump housewife.

Most importantly, she knew him. Well, she'd seen his picture. That vampire was Aro Volturi. Son of one of the Volturi's leaders, and Ariana's own father. They hadn't exactly expected one of her guardians to be her father.

Aro killed the woman with a twist of his wrist, and from behind him, two little figures emerged from the shadows. They were also bloodsucking vampires, with the golden eyes that attested it, and looked like teenagers, one a blonde girl and the other a black-haired boy. They stood next to Aro, one step behind him, like an escort.

"Jane, Alec, do not forget what we came for" he said. "Someone here has not only information on us, but also on my dearly beloved Ariana. Information that should be prevented from spreading. Kill everyone, but only after you made sure they don't know where that information is stored."

The two smaller vampires immediately moved forward, almost like automatons, and advanced towards the nearest officers. The one targeted by the girl — Jane — immediately writhed, as if in agony. _She has one of these abilities, then_.

Next to Lynne, Curtis pulled out his gun and ran to help his men stop these apparently ordinary people. Lynne called out to try and stop him, but he didn't listen. Realizing they would all be dead soon — and there was no way she could handle those three without help, not if they had abilities — she hid behind the open door of Curtis' office. She should have taken a vervain shot, just to be sure. But this was not the time for regret. She pulled her Beretta from its holster — she had had it modified to shoot tiny wooden stakes just in case something like this happened.

All she needed was a free way out of the building. And to convince a dozen cops that they were actually outnumbered by three vampires, too. She sighed inwardly at that thought. First things first : call backup. _Actual_ backup. She texted Brian and Jenny, fully aware that at least one of them would get her message.

She left her hiding place and ran next to Curtis, who had crouched behind a desk after he and his men had realized that shooting at these people was useless.

"Look" she told him. "Let's just admit for a moment that I _do_ know stuff, okay ? Will you trust me and follow my instructions ?" After an excruciatingly long couple of seconds, he nodded. "Good. We need to leave. As in, now. Leave the department, evacuate the building if possible, and you'll have to take your car and leave, then."

"How ?"

"I'll open the way. On my mark. One… Two… Three !"

She left her hiding place and shot at the nearest vampire — the boy, Alec. However, he noticed her. She expected him to dodge the two stakes, but he didn't — instead, they slowed down until they landed in his hand without causing the slightest damage. _Oh, great. More abilities_.

Meanwhile, Curtis had ordered the remaining members of his brigade to leave, and they were definitely trying to. Out of the seven of them, three were promptly stopped by Jane, killing two with her bare hands and immobilizing another with her ability. Lynne reported her attention to her, and fired a couple stakes. Either Alec's power didn't work that way, or he didn't see it, because they hit her — but only in the shoulder. The vampire screamed and fell to her knees, which got Alec's attention — he let go of the man he was about to kill and leaped at Lynne. Her training allowed her to duck in time, and he crashed somewhere behind her.

She quickly looked around to see that all of the brigade were dead or had fled — all but Curtis. She saw him pry one of his agents — a woman — from Aro's hands, and falling into his grasp himself. Running in his direction, she fired one stake at the vampire's head — unfortunately, Curtis was in front of his heart. He only staggered for a very short moment, but that was enough for Lynne to catch Curtis, pull him from the vampire's loosened hold on him. She screamed "Run !" and they did just that, Lynne praying with all her heart with every step that they wouldn't be cut mid-run by Jane's ability or a vampire jumping on them.

Luckily, Jane was not as strong and Aro and hadn't recovered from her stakes, so they only had to care about Aro and Alec following them. As they left the criminal brigade's office and locked the door — enough to hold the back for what, ten seconds ? — Lynne got an idea in the hallway. When the door opened again, letting Aro and Alec out, she emptied her Beretta's magazine in their direction. Predictably enough, the stakes were slowed down, but apparently her barrage had been too much to handle for Alec, as some of them hit their targets — nothing lethal, but enough to hurt a lot. As the vampire fell to the ground, she grabbed Curtis's arm, who had frozen behind her and was still shocked, and ran towards the exit.


	11. Chapter 10 — Hand to Hand

Brian arrived, followed by Emmet and Jacob — Jenny was at Cassie's place for their first lesson, and Mark was just not ready yet for that kind of mission — as Lynne emerged from the building, along with that local detective Brian had once met — what was his name again ? She quickly summed up the situation to them.

"Ariana's guardians are inside. One of them is Aro Volturi. Managed to hurt them, but I ran out of ammo, so I had to leave. They wanted something the criminal brigade had found out on Ariana and them, so I hope they're still in there looking."

"Understood. You can show us the way ?" She didn't look severely wounded, but maybe it wasn't visible.

"Yeah, but I'd rather stay behind for the actual fighting."

She led them up a couple staircases then through hallways until they reached the criminal brigade offices in the building. The door was demolished, and not in the classic hanging-off-its-hinges way ; the hole in it was barely large enough to let them go through one at a time. And of course, the mechanism itself appeared to be broken, so they couldn't just reopen it. Brian paused to think about who should go first, but was cut off by Emmet wrecking the door some more to completely tear it off.

_Well, that simplifies it, I guess_. Jacob went first, in wolf form, followed closely by Emmet. Brian walked inside slower and more carefully, guns ready. The main room was empty, but that still left the individual offices.

"Lynne" he called. "Who do you think could have data on Ariana and her guardians in this place ?"

She didn't have to pause for thinking — she'd probably wondered that herself all the way to here. "Curtis. Jason Curtis. I asked him about her, and he'd started figuring the murders out on his own." She showed Brian to the man's office, but it too was empty — literally empty, with only the biggest furniture left in the place.

Emmet joined them to tell them that he and Jacob couldn't find anyone in the rest of the department.

"They found what they were looking for, didn't they ?" he added.

"It looks like it" Lynne said. "There's nothing we can do here."

"So what do we do ?" Emmet asked.

Lynne looked at Brian and waited, and Emmet did the same. As the veteran Unit agent here, he guessed this sort of decision was his to make.

With a groan, he said, "There's not much we _can_ do here right now. First of all, we need to warn Parere that Aro himself is here ; it could be a game changer. We also need to deal with the survivors. And hope we can find Aro and his goons quickly enough."

"Talk about a plan" Lynne said, deadpan.

"Yeah, well, not my fault if there isn't much else we can do. Lynne, can you deal with the survivors ? You know them better than I do."

She stared at him, incredulous. "And what do I tell them ?"

"I think you know the rules. You should avoid telling anyone, but if there is one you think can handle it… Well, he's in the same situation you were in, now." She nodded — she knew exactly who he was referring to, of course. "I'll go warn Parere" he added, then left the office and made his way out of the building.

* * *

><p>When Brian reached their house, he pulled out his phone and dialed Hugo's number — he knew it was already late at night, but he counted on time difference being on his side. Besides, calling Hugo would always be a better option than calling his boss.<p>

It did take two attempts for Hugo to pick up. "Brian ? Is everything okay ?" He sounded worried. He _always_ sounded worried, but Brian couldn't blame him for that — his lover and best friend were both risking their lives miles aways from home in a war that had already cost him his daughter, after all.

Still, that didn't mean he couldn't tease him about it. "Geez, Hugo, do you have to be so _grim_ ? Of course I'm fine. I just had urgent intel and I figured you could be my messenger."

"For Louisa, huh ? I'm not waking her up any more than you are, Brian." By the sound of his voice, Brian knew Hugo was smiling.

"Yeah, well, maybe it's not _that_ urgent, then" he said.

"Wait" Hugo said, and Brian could hear Hugo's exasperated sigh. "So what's going on ?"

"Lynne was attacked. She's fine," he added in a rush before Hugo would worry even further, "it's _who_ attacked her that's interesting. She was attacked by Aro Volturi. In a police department, no less."

"What ? Why ?"

"He was looking for something, and we think he got it. But as far as we know, that something was only evidence he wanted erased. Lynne just happened to be there. If she hadn't, the whole criminal brigade would be gone by now, I'd say."

"Aro Volturi" Hugo said, thoughtful. "That could be dangerous. What's he even doing in Westerville ? Shouldn't he be in Rome with the other of his coven ?"

"Yup. That's what worried me too. I think something's up, something bigger than we thought."

"Yeah." For a moment Hugo said nothing. "I'll tell all that to Louisa tomorrow. And we'll try to solve this puzzle, too."

"Speaking of which… How's the search going ?"

Hugo sighed once more — in exhaustion this time. "You've never seen Lewis's library, have you ?"

"Can't say I have."

"Well pray you never have to do it. Finding the books is… relatively easy, and we already studied a good chunk of them, but there are so many contradictions, inexactitudes, or outright mistakes that I'm not sure we'll get any decent information out of all this."

Well that wasn't the kind of answer Brian had hoped for. Still, he had to hope they would find something, because that was the only thing they had right now. "Keep going," he said, "I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"Yeah, well I hope so too." A sigh — or was it a yawn ? — came from Hugo's side. "Now I really need some sleep, if I don't want to collapse while reading tomorrow."

Brian chuckled. "Yeah, me too, actually. Good night, Hugo."

"Good night, Brian. It was good to hear your voice."

* * *

><p>Earlier that night, when Lynne had thought of Curtis as in a situation close to hers when she was in Forks and had gone to Columbia… she hadn't thought she would be even closer to the truth in a matter of hours.<p>

He actually came to talk to her as soon as she left the building with Emmet — Jacob had left the same way the vampires had, through the windows, both so he could try to find a trail and to avoid freaking out the crowd with a giant wolf. Or a naked teenager, either option wasn't exactly optimal.

"What the hell was that, Epieu ?" Curtis asked her. Emmet stared at him, one eyebrow raised, but Lynne told him in a whisper that she would deal with him. When Emmet walked away, Curtis asked again, "What was it ? You knew what it was. You had a weapon to fight it. On hand."

"Vampires" she said.

"Beg you pardon ?"

"Vampires" she repeated. "You asked what they were, that's what they are. Three vampires, and one of them was particularly powerful."

Curtis's expression was about as incredulous as hers must have been in that hotel room in Columbia. But, just like her, he'd seen first-hand that all attempts at rationalizing were futile.

Lynne figured she owed it to him to tell him what situation he was thrown in — Lux had done the same for her, after all. "Their leader," she said, "he's Ariana's father, which makes her half-vampire. And that's why we're here. For her."

"Okay." Well, that went over better than expected if he accepted it so quickly. But again, Curtis had seen it coming even better than Lynne had, so she could understand. "How can I help ?"

Lynne stared at him. "Come to our house tomorrow. I'll teach you what I can. As for how involved we'll let you be, that's not up to me to decide."

Curtis nodded. "Very well."

_Well, our house is slowly turning into the Vampire Slayer Academy_, Lynne thought.

"And Curtis… I can expect you to keep quiet about this, can't I ?"

Curtis nodded. He knew what she'd known : that nobody else would believe them. "Of course."

* * *

><p>In the morning, Brian was stuck with a big question : how to train newbies to fight vampires ? Brian had never trained anyone from scratch — all he had ever had to do was help people adapt to field work, but they had always had years of practice with accomplished teachers first.<p>

First, he called out to Emmet. The vampire came down the stairs, not particularly happy about being called in the middle of the night. The irony of that thought made Brian smile, until he noticed Emmet glaring at him, probably thinking he was being mocked.

"Okay, look," he said, "I need your help to train the others."

Emmet frowned. "Me ? Why ? I mean, I know how to kill vampires, but not the way humans do it."

"Oh, I don't need you to be their instructor, but their practice target."

The vampire took it surprisingly well, considering what was asked of him. He only flinched, then nodded dryly. "Of course. They'll have to be ready to face something faster than themselves. But me and Jacob are already taking care of watching over Ariana."

"Jacob can stand watch on his own, right ? I mean, it's the weekend, I don't think she has anything planned."

"Maybe she doesn't, but what about her father ? It's only a matter of time before one of them identifies Jacob by smell. And I don't think he can defend himself against three vampires if they can take him by surprise." The strength of his tone made Brian wonder how close the two actually were — he'd always thought they were in a bit of rivalry, what with being interested in the same girl, but that didn't fit it.

"I don't see Jacob being taken by surprise" Brian said, lost in his thoughts. Seeing that Emmet was about to argue again, he quickly added, "But if it's really important to you, I'll get Lynne to go with him and get his back. I'm sure she can find a way to explain her presence in Dalton, being police and all."

Emmet paused, then sighed. "Fine. I'll go with you."

After that, ha warned Lynne about his arrangement, then waited for his "students". Mark came downstairs soon afterwards, and Tim and Kurt arrived with Cassie not so much later, followed by Curtis. The officer didn't look like he had had much sleep, but he was not very surprised at meeting Brian.

"Agent Hahnel" he said, flatly. "So you're in this too. Of course. Where's Epieu ?"

The way he pronounced Lynne's name — like he was trying his best, but not quite there yet — made Brian smile. "I'll be the one to train you today. Lynne has other things to attend to. And call me Brian."

The man shrugged. "Only if you call me Jason." He had a soft chuckle at that

Brian gathered the others, and they drove to a Unit warehouse outside of town, on the road to Columbus. There, Brian started with the basics of how to kill a vampire. Of course he'd already gone over these with Mark, but the other three didn't know anything about that, so it was probably the most important part.

He told his students about the heart — that had to be pierced by a wooden stake to be lethal, while other materials would incapacitate the vampire — and other areas that could be impaled for major damage. After that, he showed them on one of the dummies in the warehouse, and set them to try for themselves.

They practiced on the dummies, then Brian gave them retractible stakes to have them train against himself and Emmet, to see what they could do against a target that would fight back. In the course of two hours, all four of them knew at least enough to deal with someone moving at human speed — at least, they did in a stress-free environment, but that was something Brian could not emulate.

Brian and Emmet then started to train their reflexes against superhuman creatures, by using their respective talents as a hybrid and a full vampire. It took Kurt only a few moments before giving in and begging for a break, and the others didn't last very long either. But still, as he let them have their break, Brian had hope for at least Jason and Mark to be able to learn something.

After the break, he took them to another part of the warehouse, which was used as a shooting range, and started to evaluate just how good Jason and Mark were — the former knew his job as a cop, and Mark, having gone to a military school, was doing more than okay — all the while instructing Tim and Kurt the basics. After a while, Brian told Jason and Mark to go back to practicing hand-to-hand combat with Emmet while he helped Tim and Kurt in the shooting range.

By the time they stopped for lunch, Brian felt tired, but it looked nothing like the state the boys and Jason were in. On the positive side, Mark had managed to outwit Emmet a couple times, and Tim and Kurt were actually learning to cope with recoil now. All Brian could do now was hope they had enough time to get them fully ready — or better yet, that he wouldn't need them when the time came to fight.


	12. Chapter 11 — Link to All

When Tim had first been offered to be taught vampire slaying, he thought of Buffy and how cool it would be to be like her. Less than a day into the actual training, about all of his excitement had already worn off. He expected it to be difficult, but he didn't think he would hurt from places he didn't even know he could feel up until then, and all that without any sense of progress being made.

Brian looked optimistic, but Tim didn't know if that was a façade, or if it was because Brian's expectations were just much, much lower than Tim's. In any case, it was doing very little to keep him motivated.

He had gone back to the shooting range after lunch, preferring that to being beaten down, but it did little good ; he just couldn't seem to figure out how to shoot with any semblance of accuracy. Brian had actually given him different types of gun, trying to find the most suitable, but it seemed to be the same thing every time.

He paused after unloading another magazine — with only one of the bullets barely scratching the target — as he felt someone standing behind him. He turned with an exasperated sigh. "No, Brian, this one's— oh" he paused when he found himself face to face with Mark. "Sorry, I thought Brian was coming back to check on me."

"'S all right. Brian let me off the hook and I figured I'd see how you were doing."

Tim shrugged. "Well, about as well as you might expect" he said, waving at the paper target.

Mark pressed a command to bring the target close to them and examined him with a genuine concentration. "I see. It's weird, though. Your stance didn't look too wrong, you were steady enough." He paused, then added, "Mind showing me again how you do it ?"

He placed a new target, pressed the command to send it away, and waited for Tim to aim. "Hold on" he said, and he shifted closer to examine his posture. The sudden contact sent a shiver through Tim, who tried his best to ignore it as Mark needlessly straightened his back. "Just as I thought. You posture's all right, and—" he rested his head on Tim's shoulder, focusing on Tim's hands, "you're holding it the right way."

He walked away and put on earmuffs, then waved at Tim to shoot, and the boy obeyed, curious. After unloading another magazine — and hitting twice, this time — he looked back at Mark, who was wearing a puzzled expression.

"I don't get it. You're doing everything right — better than most people shooting for the first time, really. It's almost like you're just… I don't know, _rejecting_ the gun on a subconscious level."

"What, you think I'm missing on purpose ?"

"Sort of. Maybe it's something to do with the gun. You should try something else."

Tim glanced at the weapon in his hand. "Well I've tried about a dozen of these now, I don't see how yet another will change."

"No, not another gun, I mean, another type of weapon altogether."

Tim stared at Mark for a moment, then shrugged. "All right. What's the harm ?"

Mark turned back and waved at him to come along, and Tim followed the taller boy to the corridors of the warehouse. "I've looked around the place before I came to find you," Mark explained, "and I've seen this room on my way… there it is."

They entered another large room, very similar to the shooting range — even down to the series of boxes from where trainees could shoot at targets. However, these targets weren't made of paper, but were much thicker, and more solid, even though Tim couldn't make out the material in the distance.

Mark had already walked to the opposite wall, where the weapons were stored, and Tim immediately understood what the room's purpose was as he contemplated a series of bows stored in racks along the wall. As Tim walked closer, Mark was already searching through them, sometimes glancing at Tim as if evaluating him. After a moment, he picked one, and said, "Here. Take this, and I'll show you how to use it." He then picked one up for himself.

"Have you even practiced archery before ?" Tim asked as they walked towards the range itself. "Doesn't sound like the kind of stuff you learn at a military academy."

"I did have hobbies, you know" Mark answered with a smirk. "Now, I'll show you how it's done first, then I'll let you try and correct your stance. It's different from shooting a gun, of course, but judging by how quickly you learned one, I think you can learn this very quickly, too."

'Very quickly' was a very relative notion, Tim said, and even with the protection, his was starting to feel unbearable pain in his left forearm due to the bowstring snapping before he got the trick. However, all it took was about an hour, after which Mark started to become more and more enthusiastic as Tim started to hit the target with almost every shot. Not always in the vital parts of the humanoid shape, but at least he didn't miss the way he did with the gun, so that was an improvement.

"You were right" he said when he finally took a break and just crumbled on the floor, sitting in front of his box. Mark dropped next to him, and didn't say anything, just smiling back at Tim. "That was very insane, but you _were_ right. I think."

"I'm not sure 'insane' is the right word. Maybe you're looking for 'awesome'."

Tim stared at him, both amused and exasperated. "There is no logical explanation behind this. Why would I just reject a gun, but not a bow ?"

"I don't know. Magic ? We're training to fight vampires and something that basically controls minds, I'm not looking for logic wherever I go. Gave that up a short while back."

That brought back to Tim's mind something Brian had said — that Mark was his newest recruit. "You haven't been here for long either, have you ? How did you end up here ?"

Mark sighed. "Long story. I'm from Chicago too, and I met Ariana. Her parents — well, adoptive parents — were friends of mine, and she came to live with us for a while. Long story short, she had a thing for my cousin, who also lived with us, manipulated him into her boy toy, and everyone else into hating me when I tried to step in. Now Damien's dead, and a part of me still thinks I didn't try my best to get him out of it."

"I'm sorry" Tim said. "But I don't think there was anything you could do."

Mark looked like he was about to argue, then paused. "Thanks" he said. "You've been there too, I gathered ?"

Flashes rushed through Tim's mind — images of a younger girl and a group of boys standing behind her, like mindless drones. "I— yeah" he said. "But I had forgotten." Another flash came — of when the boys beat him up — and he closed his eyes in an attempt to dismiss the images.

Mark must have noticed, because he wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Hey, are you okay ?"

That contact brought Tim back to the present, and after he caught his breath, he gave his most honest answer : "Not really. It's starting to come back — the memories. Don't know why, but it's getting stronger every day since Ariana arrived."

"Hold on" Mark simply said. "It'll be all right. Just… keep in mind that it's the past." Something about his expression made Tim realize that he was speaking from experience.

* * *

><p>Brian found Tim and Mark still sitting on the floor, neither of them having found the strength to interrupt their break and go back to practicing. They hadn't even talked that much, only exchanging details of their past that had as little to do with Ariana as possible.<p>

That hadn't stopped the memories, and Tim wasn't willing to admit that he had actually cried on Mark's shoulder when the flashbacks became too strong, and had ended up remaining there, feeling empty, when it all stopped. It had been a while when Brian arrived, so he hoped it wasn't visible, but if Brian noticed, he didn't say anything.

"Everything all right ? Emmet told me you'd be there."

"Yeah" Mark said. "I tried to see if Tim was any good with a bow, and I think he can be taught here."

Brian looked surprised. "Good. I'll take everything I can get. Nice job" he added with an proud smile. "We're gonna go back now ; it's getting late, and we've still got a long road ahead of us." Mark and Tim followed him outside, and back to the Unit vans.

Over dinner, they traded stories of the day with the rest of the group — Jacob and Lynne had watched over Ariana all day ; she was back at Dalton now, and she hadn't done anything particular. Cassie had spent part of the day teaching Jenny, then they had tried to locate the Volturi, but their combined search spells had failed — due to lack of experience of the Volturi being protected, they couldn't tell.

After the meal, everyone went their own way, and Tim was left unsure what to do, as this wasn't his home. His question was answered by his mother, who told him to come with her as she walked upstairs, carrying a package in her hands. There, she knocked on one of the doors, seemingly at random — Tim couldn't have told whose each of the rooms were — then entered when given permission.

Mark's room was a bit impersonal — all in dull shades of beige and grey, with just a desk, a bed, a wardrobe and a small bookshelf — and made Tim realized just how recently he had joined the team. But the boy sitting at his desk looked like he was content with that, and it brought Tim back to his own room, when they first moved in their house in Forks. He had made it cold and impersonal too, and wondered now just how much that decision was related to being subjected to Ariana's wrath. Maybe, when someone manipulated your and everyone around you's emotions, you just wanted to shut them off for a while when you got out of it.

Mark looked a bit surprised to see Cassie and Tim coming in, but didn't look bothered. After the day of intense training, they had all had a shower, and Mark had changed into more comfortable clothes that were a bit too large — probably Jacob's or Brian's, by the look of it — that made him look a bit goofy, but not exactly in a bad way.

Oh boy, not at all in a bad way.

"Mrs Chey ? Tim ? Is there anything I can do ?"

"Call me Cassie, please. And I'm here because I've had an idea during the afternoon," Cassie started, "and I wanted you to be my test subject." She started to unwrap her package as she spoke.

Mark shot a curious glance at Tim, who shrugged, no more aware of what his mother had planned than the other boy was. Finally, Cassie revealed the content of her package. It was a long coat, made of a fine, deep blue cloth that didn't look familiar to Tim. "What is that ?" he asked thoughtlessly.

"I enchanted it. See, with all these vampires running around, I started to wonder why no one had any protection. Oh, of course, there's always vervain, but what about those vampires whose power are of a more… physical kind ? Lynne told me one of those of yesterday was telekinetic ; vervain couldn't do anything against projectiles."

"Okay," Mark said, "what's it got to do with me ?"

"Well, I made this as a more complete protection against vampire powers. It should work against indirect ones, like telekinesis, and replace the need for vervain. But I can't test it ; Brian and the boys already have their Unit equipment, and when I asked Lynne, she said she'd gladly wait until I'm sure it's functional."

"So you're asking me instead." Mark's voice was very neutral as he said that.

Cassie bit her lip — something she did when she felt ashamed of herself, Tim knew. "I know it's not ideal, but Brian says you're the best of his new recruits. Plus, let's face it : Kurt is unlikely to fight at all, and Tim already has a partial protection due to the magic coursing through his veins. It was you or that detective, and I trust you more than him. But if you refuse to take it, I'll understand. It can wait until we can run more proper tests."

Mark chuckled. "No, don't. You've gotten me curious now. I'll take it. Anything that can help. Thank you, Mrs Chey— Cassie."

Cassie smiled warmly. "Good. I'll leave you two alone now. I'll call you when we're leaving, Tim. Still have a few things to figure out." And she left the room, without letting either of them speak, followed by Tim's confused stare.

* * *

><p>It was pure, dumb luck that helped Hugo, Louisa and Lewis to finally get a precise answer.<p>

A large majority of the hundred books had been read by now, and they had documented every piece of information that might be useful, but it still was not particularly helpful. Theories went to half vampires being as fragile as a human, to them having all the strengths of a vampire but none of their weaknesses, to anything in between. And they were all that — theories, never written by someone who had actually met a half vampire.

However, on Monday, they were interrupted as they were going through the last dozen books, as a package was delivered to Lewis's house. As it turned out, Lewis had lent one of his books — one he had dismissed as irrelevant — to a friend of his, who had just returned it.

However, as Lewis was about to store in back in his library, he paused. "Wait a minute…" he said, opening it, still precariously standing on a ladder. "That book is a treaty on vampire children."

"How's that supposed to help us ?" Louisa asked.

"The author was a vampire herself, a woman of old Mycenae named Iphigenia, and she met all the children she studied. I didn't think it was relevant back then because of some cases she described, that made no sense to me, but… now that we have evidence that aging, half vampires exist, I should look back on it." He climbed down his ladder, as if he suddenly realized where he was, searching through the book as he did. "There. Of thirteen children, three were described as aging. We should look at these."

As this was the first document they found written by a direct witness, Hugo and Louisa gathered around Lewis to read these studies. All three children — two boys and a girl — had common points with each other and Ariana : red eyes, supernatural strength and speed, no immunity to magic. And just like Ariana, they were adored by pretty much everyone around them — vampires and humans alike. The author herself seemed very confused by the first boy, and midway through her study of the second, she wrote a very emphatic paragraph about how she had forced herself to use vervain to reduce the boy's 'charm', as she dubbed it.

Eventually, the first boy had become a man, never aging a day until he died in battle at the siege of Alexandria, sinking with a ship of Antony's fleet. The second boy was killed as a teenager, when another boy fought over a girl with him, but Iphigenia reported that the other young man died too, in a way that was unclear, but apparently was related to the 'charm'. Finally, the girl had been found by the Cullens themselves, and killed by Esme, who disabled her charm to deal with her easily.

As they were done reading, Hugo went straight to their notes and compared them with the records. Iphigenia's records seemed very accurate, and Hugo decided he should bet that she was correct to solve contradictions. What was left, when he was done cross-referencing, gave him hope for the first time.

The half vampires's mesmer, their charm, was related to the vampire's unique abilities that sometimes happened. Hugo himself knew of a few of these — among the Cullens, Edward could read minds and Alice see the future, and Brian had said the Volturi agents in Westerville had their own abilities as well. And while the mesmer was their greatest strength, it could also be used against them, if they could block it.

Vervain was one such solution, but Hugo doubted they could have everyone in town consume it. But if Esme had succeeded, then maybe the combined abilities of their three witches — Louisa, Jenny and Cassie — could be enough as well. It was just a matter of time and effort. With that new knowledge, Hugo and Louisa left the library to warn the team in Westerville as quickly as possible.


	13. Chapter 12 — Beyond the Door

Since the task of finding out what Ariana was and what her weaknesses could be was entirely out of Hugo's hands, he was left with nothing to do for a few days. Well, nothing except catch up with what he had to do for his actual job as the mayor of Forks, and think.

Something hadn't seemed to fit about the situation, and being put aside gave him the necessary hindsight to finally see it. They had wondered before about Aro's presence in Westerville, but they had never tried to actually answer it.

And now that they knew what Ariana was — and, even more important, that there was a book written by a vampire discussing this exact subject — Hugo wondered whether there was more to it than just a father protecting his daughter. Maybe Aro simply cared about his daughter that much, but Hugo doubted it, as the vampire hadn't been a father to her for years, according to the Unit's records. He could delegate the task of ensuring Ariana's safety — he had before.

There had to be a reason for his behavior to change, and Hugo could only attribute it to the death of Damien Thorn that had caused Ariana to run away. Damien Thorn, who, according to Mark, had been completely under her spell.

After a few days, Hugo came up with a hypothesis he considered solid enough, and went to Lewis that evening to ask his opinion about it. The man looked pleased and a little surprised to see him, and led him to the living room.

"Louisa's studying Iphigenia's works to find if she wrote anything about how she blocked the mesmer" Lewis said without being prompted.

"I'm not here for her. I wanted to hear your thoughts on this idea I had."

Lewis' eyebrows flew upwards — he never seemed to expect people to want something from him personally. "All right, I'm listening."

Hugo started by explaining his questions regarding Aro's presence, then went for what he had thought of as an answer. "I think that Ariana only started to control her mesmer recently, or maybe it just became stronger, and that Damien Thorn's death was what alerted Aro about it. And I think Aro wants to use that mesmer to his advantage."

Lewis nodded. "I see. I'm sure I can see if I can confirm that — it won't be easy, but it can be feasible. And what would he use it for ?"

Hugo stared at him for a second before he realized his friend wasn't kidding. "Well, that sounds obvious. She can basically control people. Remember the first child Iphigenia studied ? He went to war, several times, and according to her, no enemy would resist him. He only died because he got on a boat and sunk with it. I suppose his enemies were out of his reach." Lewis nodded, and Hugo could see his brain coming to the same conclusion as Hugo had. "But it was a waste. There's one thing I know as a politician — if people like you, they might go behind you without even caring about your ideas. Now replace 'like' with 'be completely devoted to' and you get what he could do with Ariana."

"Gain more power for the Volturi than they could ever dream of having."

"Yes. Or for himself — not that it changes anything. And a very efficient way of keeping people in line, too."

"But we don't know how many people Ariana could keep under control. For all we and Aro know, there might be limitations."

"Exactly" Hugo said, as he had expected the objection. "That was actually something I wondered too. That, and something else — why a small town in Ohio ? I mean, if you're going to take over a place, why not something large ?"

Lewis understood immediately. "He's testing her."

"I think so. It would definitely make sense, at least."

"But if that's the case… what's stopping him ? Why not take over the town at once ?"

"I think he's waiting for the right occasion. An opportunity to gather people and get them all under her charm."

"Makes sense" Lewis said, thoughtful. "We should call Brian — they might know if there's anything planned."

Hugo nodded, and Lewis grabbed a phone, dialing Brian's number — Hugo didn't even know Lewis had it — and putting him on speaker.

"Lewis ?" Brian said, sounding a little worried. "Everything all right ?"

"O—of course" Lewis said. "I'm with Hugo here, who presented me with a very interesting theory."

Brian sighed — of relief, Hugo would guess. "Oh, hi Hugo. Sure, I'm listening."

"Could you put us on speaker ?" Hugo asked — even though he would rather talk to Brian alone, it wouldn't help to have to repeat everything several times.

"Done. We're listening."

Hugo explained his theory to the group, and concluded by asking, "Has any of you heard of some big social event in town ?"

There was a moment of silence, then Emmet answered : "Well, there are a few proms around town, but Dalton doesn't have one and I don't see how Ariana could get invited at one of the others."

"Aro could probably have her invited anywhere" Lynne objected.

"Yeah, but would Ariana go ?" Jacob said. "If Aro's plan is the way you described it, Hugo, I don't think Ariana's in on it. She seems very… genuine."

Another voice interrupted Lynne's protest, that Hugo didn't know — a high-pitched voice, on the more effeminate side of male timbres. "There's the prom at McKinley, tomorrow night. I would have invited Blaine there ; I wouldn't be surprised if some of my old friends invited him instead."

"And if he goes there, she'd follow too" Jacob said, sounding like he dared anyone to disagree with him.

"McKinley… where is that ?" Lewis asked.

"In Lima" Brian answered. "An even smaller town than Westerville."

Hugo understood what Brian meant. "Which makes it an even better place to test Ariana's limits." Hugo sighed. A high school prom, that could make hundreds of students, teachers and guests. Then, through them, the rest of town. Then he realized something. "Tomorrow, you said ?"

"Yes," the unknown boy answered. "Tomorrow's Friday, and they're having the prom at night. They even planned to sing _the song_ for the occasion" he added with a small emphasis that carried a bit of disdain for that song.

Hugo did not care who, or what song, the boy was talking about. "That means we have less than 24 hours. Get ready at once. I'll see what backup Louisa can get us."

* * *

><p>Hugo himself left the house immediately to find Louisa, who stayed at a small hotel — she had declined both Lewis's and Hugo's offer to stay at their homes. When he saw the mess that was her room, littered with books, a couple laptops, and a few guns, he started to figure out why.<p>

"Hugo !" she said with an unusually delighted warmth in her voice as she let him in. "Come look at this. There's something I found from another of Iphigenia's books. You remember how the second child was killed in a fight, but the other boy died too ? I think I know why."

"Louisa, I don't think there's time for—"

Her green stare stopped him. "It really is important. Look at that. Long after she wrote her record of her stay with the boy, Iphigenia figured out what had happened — it wasn't clear even to her, back then. The half vampires have a self-defense mechanism. A last resort weapon, if you will."

Hugo frowned. "Really ? And what is it ?"

"Their charm, their mesmer, whichever you want to call it… it's not just able to alter minds. It can also effect everything around her, distorting them in, as she describes it, 'insane ways'. Obviously, as she notes, if a living being is affected, his organism is too complex to stay intact, and the person usually dies shortly afterwards."

Hugo shuddered at the thought. "So what do we do, then ?" There was still the question of the sudden urgency of their situation, but one thing at a time.

"Well, it is part of her mesmer, so we can disable it. Iphigenia here gives a spell that should do the trick, and Cassie and Jenny said they would try it tomorrow when Jacob and Emmet go to school — just for a short time, to see if it works." Sighing, she added, "I think we're ready. Give me a couple more days to call a back-up team, and we can say goodbye to the youngest Volturi."

"Yeah, that's why I wanted to talk to you… we don't have that much time." Hugo explained his idea, and the conclusion he had come to when talking to the rest of the group : that Ariana would likely be used by Aro the very next day to charm an entire high school.

Louisa did not let any emotion transpire as he told her that, but Hugo knew she wasn't taking it well — for someone who always had a few turns planned in advance, knowing the enemy's plan less than 24 hours before it unfolded must have been extremely frustrating.

After he was done, she remained silent for a while, then grabbed one of her laptops, checking something Hugo couldn't see.

"I have a small team in Ohio. Not exactly what I hoped for, but I suppose it's the best we'll get. I'll warn them immediately." After a pause, she added, "I'll leave for there immediately, too."

Hugo had expected her to say that. "I'm going with you" he said.

She turned to stare at him, then simply nodded. "Very well. We're leaving in an hour, so hurry up to get your stuff."


	14. Chapter 13 — Waltz of the Damned

Hugo and Louisa reached Ohio in the early hours of the morning, picked up a Unit car in Columbus — which made Hugo wonder just how much supplies the Unit had, just lying around in case someone needed them — and reached Westerville at around ten in the morning.

The house was already buzzing with activity when they arrived : Brian opened the door, and went for a quick kiss on Hugo's lips before vanishing upstairs. Lynne arrived moments later, and introduced Hugo and Louisa to the rest of the group — Tim, the witch's son, Mark and Kurt, two victims of Ariana who had found shelter with the team, and Jason Curtis, a local police officer. Right after the introduction, Louisa left them to make a phone call — to her team, probably — and Lynne took Hugo to help her verify the guns.

As they were on their way to the basement, however, Jenny came back with another woman, about Hugo's age, slightly shorter than Jenny, with a trench coat that made her look a bit impressive despite her stature.

"It worked !" Jenny said as soon as she closed the door. "The spell worked ! Her mesmer wasn't working for a moment, you could see all the students around her, almost… stirring in their sleep !"

"Really ?" Hugo asked.

When Jenny saw him, she immediately pulled him in a tight hug. "Oh, you're here ! We all missed you." She let go of him, then added. "And yes, really. By the way, this is Cassie — I'm sure you've heard of her. Cassie, this is Hugo, Jo—" She paused, and Hugo suspected she had been about to introduce him as 'Joan's dad' as she always had. Instead, she cast him an apologetic glance, and said, "Brian's fiancé."

After the introductions, the two witches went to find Louisa, and Hugo followed Lynne to the basement. Half an hour later, the weapons were ready, and they carried it back upstairs, just in time for another arrival.

"Anya !" Brian greeted the newcomers.

"It's Agent Insecabilis when I'm on a mission, thank you very much, _Ardere_." The agent who had answered was a tall young woman, with long, curly brown hair with purple highlights, who wore a leather jacket and blue jeans, as well a skirt above them — a very peculiar choice, considering the Unit wasn't supposed to be noticed. A pouch was fixes to her belt, large enough to contain weapon, but not the right shape for a gun, Hugo estimated. Two men and two women were following her, each carrying a large bag.

"So… What's the plan and what do I blow up ?" The agent asked.

"Oh, you're also an expert with explosives, then ? Like Brian ?" Hugo asked, curiosity taking the best of him.

"What ? No, I'm an expert with _science_, of course ! Anyway, you can call me Anya — everyone does, and Brian over there already said it anyway. Anya the Purple, if you want to be on my good side. Nice to meet you !"

* * *

><p>Ariana was forced to admit, the prom was much more impressive than she had expected. The place was decorated enough that you could barely notice it was actually the school gymnasium. Except for a lingering scent of sweat, but Ariana doubted humans could smell it. Of course, this was nothing like the big balls her father used to hold for her, when she was a little girl and lived with him, but still impressive for a small town in the middle of nowhere.<p>

She sighed, feeling homesick at the thought of those balls, and Blaine materialized next to her, a couple drinks in hand, and gave her one of the cups. "Are you all right, my love ?" He asked, his gaze warm with love and concern. This made Ariana smile, even though the homesickness wasn't gone — just for him.

"Yes. It's nothing, I was just thinking of my dad." Maybe she could keep this one. She just had to ask her dad to turn him when she stopped aging…

And hope her dad would agree to do it.

"Why didn't you ask him to come ?" Blaine asked. "I want to meet him, introduce myself properly. And I'm sure he would be most proud if he saw how beautiful you are tonight."

"Really ? You're too sweet" she cooed, then turned around herself, her dark blue dress flying around her. She didn't like blue dresses, they didn't go well with her eyes, but since her eyes were masked with blue contacts, it was all right. For now. And as long as Blaine liked it… it didn't matter whether _she_ liked it, then.

Blaine invited her to dance, and for once, she decided to forget about pretending to be normal for a moment as she took his hand. As they walked on the dance floor, everyone parted around her, and one of the spotlight focused on them as the next song started. Ariana didn't know it — she didn't know many modern songs, even if Blaine had tried to teach her — but it was a slow melody, and that meant she could let herself go, holding tight onto Blaine as he led them around the floor.

Everyone stared at them for a while — she could feel their stares on her neck — but eventually, others started to join them, and soon, the place returned to normal.

Of course, the song ended, soon followed by another, but Ariana pulled Blaine away from the dance floor as she had noticed Quinn, the pretty girl from Blaine's friends. Ariana remembered how mean she had been to her last time, but she hoped this time would go over better. She walked in her direction, hoping to make a better impression this time.

"Hi Quinn" she said. "Nice dress." It was true — her vaporous blue dress looked amazing, and unlike Ariana, blue was definitely Quinn's color — and Ariana felt she could use every compliment she could think of.

Quinn looked at her, looking upset for some reason. Not angry, or even really hostile, just… _cold_. No one had ever been cold to Ariana before. "Good evening Ariana, Blaine" she said, nodding at them. "And thanks, I suppose." Ariana noticed she didn't return any compliment.

"Is something wrong ?" Blaine asked. he was so _chivalrous_, even with other girls ! It made Ariana want to kiss him, but it would probably not be very appropriate in front of the distraught Quinn.

"No. I suppose I'm just nervous."

"Oh, right !" Ariana cried out. "You're running for Prom Queen, right ? I heard that !" Quinn sighed, looking around with an air of embarrassment, then nodded. "Well, I think you should win. You're the prettiest student of this school !"

"Thanks… I think ?" Quinn said. So. She had noticed Ariana's wording, then. Well, she had forgotten a lot about court subtlety, after all.

Some guy in a wheelchair came off the stage, and called Blaine, who excused himself, hurrying in his direction. Ariana looked, confused, as he climbed on the stage, until he grabbed a microphone and she understood what he was about to do. "He's going to sing a song !" she told Quinn, overexcited.

"Yeah. I know. He was there at our rehearsals, you know." She didn't sound very interested, her eyes focused on someone else. Ariana followed her gaze to a couple boys — one of them Ariana recognized from the coffee shop, even if she couldn't remember his name ; he was Quinn's boyfriend — who were starting to argue more and more violently as a girl — Rachel, her name was Rachel — looked at them, powerless.

When Quinn's boyfriend threw a first punch, and missed it, Quinn hurried through the crowd, yelling at him to stop. However, a teacher had already broken the fight as they reached the boys, and threw Quinn's boyfriend out, answering Quinn's complaints with a quip that didn't look very nice, even from the distance.

She was alone now, but it didn't last long. "Hello, my Lady" a voice called from behind. She turned around, only to see one of the people closest to her heart. Alec was there, like a miracle to keep her company. "Are you well ?"

"Alec !" she said, going in for a hug, but he stopped her.

"Not here. People must not know we are acquainted." Ariana nodded, worried. He didn't sound happy, or excited. Just… focused. When he was like that, usually, it meant things would not go well. "Look, I have a message from your father. In a moment, they'll announce the queen. You need to be ready, because it's going to be _you_. We arranged it. And you'll have to get on that stage and charm them all."

"But—" she tried to say, but Alec cut her off.

"Don't ask questions. This is our chance — and for you, it might mean going back home. You want that, don't you ?"

"Of course I do !" she said, all thoughts of Blaine gone for the moment.

"Then do as you are told. It will be soon."

"I will." Blaine's song had ended during their conversation, and she heard him calling her. She turned for a moment to wave at him, and when she turned back, Alec had vanished.

_I will be prom queen ? But how does he know ? And how can I be prom queen at a school I don't go to ?_ Well, she didn't have to care about that. Her dad had a plan, so she would follow it.

A man — the principal of the school, Blaine told Ariana when he joined her — walked on stage. "Quiet please, children" he said. "I will announce the results of the election of prom queen and king in five minutes. Before that, one last song." He then walked off the stage, and Ariana felt nervousness gnawing at her.

However, this was soon gone as she heard something. The song, which she didn't know either, but it didn't matter. The voice singing it was very distinct — high-pitched, and yet not a girl's voice. That voice, she'd heard it on her first day of school at Dalton. _But he exploded !_

And yet, as her eyes fell on the stage, there he was — the biggest obstacle between her and Blaine, the one she had thought would become like Mark, before he had died. Kurt Hummel.

Blaine had not noticed yet, but it was only a matter of seconds before he did. And then Ariana might lose him. Which was unacceptable. She grabbed her boyfriend — _hers_, and no one else's — and pulled him in for a kiss, but was cut midway by a loud crash, and they were both thrown in the air, along with most students, as the wall behind Blaine burst into pieces.

Most of the people around her were knocked out, but she was half vampire — she got back on her feet immediately. She gazed at the wall, which had been blasted to rubble. In the opening, seven people, men and women, stood, with dangerous-looking guns.

One of them walked forward — a young woman with ugly clothes. She was definitely not the princess type. She grinned at Ariana when saw her standing. "Hi," she said, "I'm Anya the Purple. There are two kinds of people who hear that name : my friends and dead people. Guess what that makes you ? Also, Blaine never loved you and never will, he's just under your control because you have stupid-ass powers."

Ariana screamed, then ran the other way, as fast as she could.

* * *

><p>Lynne had to admit, Anya was a bold one. Confronting Ariana directly like this could have been very dangerous, if the girl had decided to attack. But they were lucky, and their plan worked, as Ariana ran away instead, and a vampire soon came in the way to prevent them from pursuing her. It did not matter, however : she would go back to the safest place she knew, and that was Dalton. Which was also where the others were waiting for her.<p>

As the vampire — Alec, she recognized him — started to use his telekinetic power to project everything he could, from speakers to tables to people lying on the ground, she felt she could at least enjoy it and have revenge for the people he slaughtered a week ago. Of course, vervain stopped him from throwing them around like toys, but he was still quite formidable to face, as he could stop everything they fired at him.

However, killing the vampire was only secondary. The most important was that he did not warn Aro and Jane. And another important thing was to get all the people there to safety, which was why Lynne and Jason had been assigned to Anya's team for. While Anya fired a special gun that produced a vervain gas to disorient Alec, Jason sneaked past him, followed by Lynne, and started to shout. "Police ! Evacuate this building at once ! This is not an exercise ! There are dangerous men in here !"

The people were barely recovering from the explosion, and a lot of them were probably still deafened by it, but knew Jason from sight, and his gesturing was eloquent enough. The room started to empty itself, as Lynne searched around for people who needed help to move and helped them on their way out — or, more often than not, finding someone who could while she kept searching. The grenade's effect wouldn't last very long, and Alec would soon try to use the people as a meat shield, so speed was crucial here.

And indeed, as she found a blonde girl in a blue dress — who reminded her so much of Britney her heart nearly stopped for a second — knocked out by a rubble that hit her head, she felt movement behind her.

She turned just in time to see Alec, who was staring back with a predatory grin. Behind him, Anya's team was struggling as a dozen teenagers seemed to be harassing them.

"What did you do ?" she asked.

"Put some of my blood in the punch. They're under a thrall. If they don't die, they'll be fine, but if they do — well I never sired anyone before. I don't think I'd be a good vampire dad."

Of course. He would have a plan of his own in case of emergencies. "Let them go. Shouldn't you be running to your precious girl ?"

Alec chuckled. "What for ? Only two of you survived that night a week ago, and I saw you both there. I'm surprised you even had that much back-up. I hear the Unit's spreading itself very thin."

"Where are Aro and Jane ?" She needed to know.

"No idea. Having fun eating someone, probably. Celebrating the first step of our conquest. Although he probably knows you're here by now. He listens to my thoughts. Now, stand aside. You can't kill me, I'm hungry, and that one will be delicious."

He was referring to the girl. Lynne did not want to know how he knew that — whether it was experience, or heightened senses — or even to think about him eating at all. However, the suggestion that he would feed on the unconscious girl brought an image to Lynne's mind — the image of Britney's corpse, dried from its blood. She would not let it happen to this girl, whoever she was.

"In your dreams."

Alec shrugged. "All right" he said, chuckling. "Shoot me, empty your magazines, and then I'll kill you."

That was what he wanted her to do — what he expected her to do. So, of course, she couldn't do that. As she pretended to aim, she thought furiously, and another idea came to her mind — a crazy, insane idea. She wished she had Anya's gas-thrower, but she didn't, so there was no use hoping. She'd been able to do it once thanks to the effect of surprise. With a bit of luck, she could reiterate that feat.

She fired her gun, emptied her magazine — just as he would expect her to do. When it was empty, however, she threw her gun itself at Alec. Then, in the same movement, her free hand went to her belt, closing on one of her stakes. as she herself leaped in the vampire's direction. Surprise painted his face for the split second before she rammed into him. Her body was charged with vervain, and his power couldn't stop it : they fell to the ground.

Alec reacted almost immediately, and seized her, trying to turn her over and get on top. She knew it was useless to struggle — he would overpower her easily — so instead, she let him shift their position, pinning her against the floor. Alec had a victorious smile, which turned into a ferocious snarl as he uncovered his fangs.

Lynne had been in this position before, when she didn't even know about vampires. And, during all this, just like then, her opponent hadn't paid attention to her hands. She wasn't fighting, and Alec made the mistake she had expected him to : he didn't hold her arms, holding her by the shoulders.

When he lowered himself to bite, he was stopped a few inches away from Lynne's face, her stake stuck deep in his chest. In his heart, she knew.

The vampire's body went limp, and she pushed it aside, not wanting to watch as it decayed. Instead, she looked around the place. The blonde girl, near her, was stirring, and Lynne went to kneel by her side. Jason was entering the building, having evacuated everyone else. His eyes flickered from the corpse to Lynne, his expression a mixture of respect, relief, and downright fear, but he helped her get the girl outside, where they left her in the care of one of the students' mother, who seemed to know her and claimed to be a nurse.

Lynne and Jason went back inside. The kids who had been attacking Anya were passed out on the floor, and Anya assured them that they weren't dead — this seemed to be a result from the thrall being released.

"So… mission complete !" Anya said, a bit too enthusiastic to Lynne's taste.

"Our job here is done" she answered. "Now we have to hope Brian does his."

"Then let's clean up and go back to the house" one of Anya's men said.

Anya shook her head just as Lynne said "No.", which surprised her. Maybe she wasn't as… frivolous as Lynne had first thought.

"No" Anya repeated. "I heard what Alec told you. Aro will know what's happened here. We need to join the others at Dalton. If we're lucky enough, we'll be able to strike Aro and Jane in the back."

Lynne nodded. "Yes. Let's move !"


	15. Chapter 14 — Dismiss

Ariana's heart kept hammering in her chest as she ran away from those people who wanted to harm her. She didn't know why they did, but it didn't matter — what could she do against them anyway ?

However, Alec was there to protect her, and she heard him get in the way to help her escape with Blaine. The two of them ran outside to his car, and sped off into the night, straight to Dalton.

"What's going on ?" Blaine asked as they reached the highway. "Who were those people ?"

"I don't know !" Ariana said. She really didn't, and that was a problem. Her dad was here himself, how could he not have known about this ? Were these friends of the rogue man, the one responsible for Ariana's exile and her mother's death ? Or maybe they were enemies of her dad's ? It was _so_ frustrating not to know !

"Then why did we run away ?"

Ariana glanced at him to see him looking truly puzzled. "Because that woman, that— Anya— said she was going to kill me !"

"We should have talked to them, at least ! I'm sure we're all intelligent people, we could have found an arrangement."

"No !"

"Come on, they orchestrated this, I'm sure they wanted something more than you dead. What would that bring them ?"

A lot, of course. Ariana was a princess, after all — a vampire princess — but Blaine didn't know. And she couldn't tell him. If she did, she might have to kill him afterwards, and there was still a chance they could be happy together. _If dad disposes of those meanies_. Instead, she muttered "I don't know" then stared at the road, morose.

The rest of the ride was mostly silent — and tense, something that they'd never been around each other before. That made Ariana's worries grow, until they occupied her whole mind. Could it be he didn't love her anymore ? Would he become violent the way Damien did the night he died ? If Blaine was going the same way, she wouldn't let him hurt her the way Damien did. She wanted to remember him when he loved her.

Still, there was a shred of hope things would turn out all right, and she'd hold on to it as long as possible.

Ariana and Blaine arrived at Dalton in the dark of the night — it was easily past midnight. As he pulled over, Blaine regained his gallant attitude, hurrying to open the door for Ariana, and offering his hand to her. That brought a smile to her face, followed by a small sigh of relief — that she disguised as one of delight.

The two of them walked to Ariana's room, but when they reached it, Blaine started to walk away. All her fears from this evening came back at once, and she clenched her hand around his forearm. "Stay. Please."

Blaine looked at her, blinking in confusion. "But… wouldn't it be inconvenient ?"

_You didn't seem to mind last time_, Ariana thought. That thought — and the memory of that night, when he'd first resisted her — made her suddenly angry. No, not angry. _Furious_. "I don't care about being inconvenient !" she said, almost yelling. "I am a princess and I will do. What. I. Want !"

Shock painted Blaine's face at the reveal, and Ariana realized her slip-up. To prevent him from asking questions, she grabbed him by the back of his neck and forced him into a kiss. That seemed to work well enough, and Blaine let her guide him inside the room.

Ariana locked the door, then started to kiss him again as she grabbed his jacket and threw it across the room, then started to work on his bow tie and the buttons of his shirt underneath, to which Blaine seemed to respond very favorably, as one of his hands slid in her back to find the zipper that held her dress closed.

But before he could find it, they were interrupted when the door burst open. It didn't literally burst open, the way the wall had back in McKinley, but it was forceful enough to indicate that whoever was responsible knew the door was locked and had used irregular methods to force it open anyway.

That person was a man. He was older than Ariana — he looked a few years older, but Ariana could tell he was actually much older than that, the same way she could tell how old vampires were. But he wasn't a vampire — his eyes lacked their characteristic unnatural shine. He was fairly _sexah_, but he had just interrupted Ariana's fun time with Blaine, and that was unforgivable.

Oh, and also, this happening right after the events at the prom was too much of a coincidence to be anything good. She supposed.

* * *

><p>"What do you want ?" Blaine asked Brian, when the shock vanished from their faces. So far, he hadn't felt the slightest pull from Ariana's mesmer, which meant Jenny, who was standing by his side, must have succeeded in blocking it. Cassie and Louisa had lent her their strength for the spell, so it shouldn't have surprised him, but it did. It felt so wrong when things went according to plan, sometimes.<p>

The other two witches weren't there — they had hidden someplace safe, as they were powerless as long as Jenny was holding their power. At least that's what they told Brian. Jacob and Emmet were flanking Jenny, and Tim and Hugo were watching both ends of the hallway to prevent anyone from coming — be it at random or attracted by the inevitable commotion. Finally, Mark was standing right beside him, as well as, surprisingly enough, Kurt. The boy had agreed to Cassie's very strange plan involving illusions, and Brian just hoped it would work.

Brian entered the room, not answering the question he'd been asked, gun in hand. When Ariana saw it, her eyes widened and she cowered in fear against the bed ; as for Blaine, he tried to leap at Brian, yelling some unintelligible threat. Of course, Brian's reflexes were much sharper than the boy's, and he dodged without any effort at all as the boy's momentum made him fall to the ground.

"What do you want ?" Ariana asked. "I'm sure we can find a peaceful solution. Do you want money ? Do you want to meet my father ?"

Brian grinned. "I am going to kill you, Ariana, vampire girl." He aimed the gun, but as he shot, a figure came from behind, and placed himself in the line of fire, taking the bullet. Kurt fell at Ariana's feet, as blood started to pool around her feet.

Of course, that was planned. If they wanted to break Blaine free of Ariana's spell, they had to cause him a huge emotional shock. With her grasp over him already weakened, both by Jenny's spell and Cassie's previous intervention, the night Brian had met Mark, and that should be enough to break it completely. Kurt wasn't really dead — the illusion, very delicate, had stopped the bullet and turned it into blood, and forced Kurt into unconsciousness.

A gasp behind Brian warned him that Blaine had indeed been shocked. The boy scrambled to get back on his knees, and Brian prepared himself for another assault. However, Blaine half-walked, half-crawled to Kurt's 'corpse', and collapsed there, sobbing and whispering to his boyfriend's ears. Brian didn't make it all out, but he was pretty sure at least one 'I love you' was thrown in his diatribe.

_So. That worked_. He still couldn't shake the feeling that that was somehow wrong, but he ignored it and approached Blaine, gun still aimed at Ariana.

"You need to stand back" he said, quiet but not whispering. Blaine looked up to him, his face a mix of hurt and confusion. "Let me help you."

"What's going on ?" he asked. "What _happened_ to me ?" In his confusion, he seemed to have forgotten already that Brian had shot Kurt, but Brian wasn't the one who would remind him.

"Not now. Just stand back and let me end it." He signaled Mark to come in through their communicators, and the boy took aim as Brian carried Kurt outside, with Blaine's help.

Jenny was standing there, waiting to break Cassie's illusion. Kurt woke up and he and Blaine had their reunion, but Brian ignored it as he and Jenny came back in the room.

Ariana had recognized Mark, of course — Brian had noticed that much before leaving — and she was _terrified_. When Brian and Jenny came back inside, she fell to her knees, and started to yell.

"Help me !" she said, to Jenny's attention — in a hopeless attempt at winning the newcomer over, presumably. "Please ! They'll hurt me !"

A flash of worry appeared on Jenny's face, and Brian glanced at her, concerned. "Are you all right ?"

"Yeah" she said. "She's not affecting me, if that's what you thought. But she's doing it, Brian. Her desperate measure, when the mesmer gains in strength ? She's doing it, and I can barely hold it."

"No time to waste, then" Brian said. He shot Ariana four times — twice in the stomach, and once in each arm — pinning her to the bed. Then, he pulled out the enchanted stake Louisa had given him. _To make sure she doesn't heal from the wound somehow_, she'd said. He came next to the bed, raised his arm—

And all hell broke loose. He was warned a fraction of a moment early by Jenny's gasp when her spell broke, and that was just enough for him to throw himself backwards.

Ariana's last resort took form of a wave of pure energy that fried everything in contact with her : the bed, and everything on it, and the tiny stakes Brian had fired at her, all of it was gone in a moment, turned to dust. As it slowly progressed, it lost its destructive capability, but things near the girl started to morph, colors and shapes bending around her, taking illogical forms as if to highlight her presence.

Brian turned to Jenny, and asked in a hurry, "Can you stop it ?"

Jenny had been thrown back against the wall by the recoil of her spell breaking, but she got back up and nodded. The wave stopped progressing a few feet away from Brian and Mark, but they could still feel its inexorable force seeping through the invisible barrier. When Brian glanced behind, he saw Jacob and Emmet, outside, coming in their direction in slow motion, as if Ariana's power had taken control of time itself. _Maybe it has_, he thought.

"So we're on our own" Mark said. Brian glanced at him, to see that Mark had looked outside as well — and come to the same conclusion Brian had.

"How long can you hold ?" Brian asked Jenny.

Sweat was forming on the witch's brow. "I think you know what the answer is : not long at all."

Brian sighed. He needed to think of a plan, fast.

However, his thoughts were quickly interrupted by Mark. "Give me the stake" he asked.

"What ?"

"Give me the stake. I'll try to kill her."

"Don't be stupid," Jenny said, "you'll die."

"Cassie's coat should protect me. At least long enough for me to kill her." He paused, then added, "If I have to die too, fine." Brian opened his mouth to protest, but Mark interrupted him. "Don't ! There's no time, and we all know it. Let me try."

He reached out for the stake in Brian's hand, and Brian let go of it. "I'll cover you."

Mark smiled. "You'll try." He turned to Ariana, drew his long coat shut, breathed in deeply, then walked forward. As he did, Brian fired what he could in the girl's direction, but the stakes, as they moved towards her, progressed slower and slower, and seemed to become smaller as well, when they weren't deformed beyond recognition of their initial shape or material.

Mark, on the other hand, seemed to be somewhat immune to that effect. He progressed slowly, his stance indicating that he was fighting back a huge force pushing him back, but so far, he was intact and progressing at a regular pace.

It must not have taken him a minute to reach Ariana, but Brian's tension or Ariana's powers — or both — had messed up his perception of time, because it seemed much longer than that. Eventually, though, Mark ended up standing right in front of the girl. She was still, maybe trapped by her own power, and she only seemed to realize he was there after a moment, as if her perception of time was also different from theirs. When she did, the terror she had shown when first seeing Mark came back, even greater than before, and another wave of energy emerged from her. As it washed over Mark, he staggered, but held on tight and focus his movement to hit with the stake.

When the wooden spike connected with Ariana's heart, the storm became even stronger, as a blinding light erupted from her.

* * *

><p>Being trapped in a power that warped reality to the point of changing time itself was a very strange experience. Tim had immediately, instinctively known what was happening, even though he doubted he'd ever experienced it before — and from the rest of the team's reaction, he wasn't the only one in that situation.<p>

He felt like he was experiencing time at two different speeds at once. Everything seemed to move at a regular pace, even himself, and yet, everything seemed… slow. His curiosity got the best of him — and Hugo's as well, he noticed — and they gathered in front of the room. Running down the hallway had been a matter of moments, and yet it felt like it had taken him half an hour.

When he looked inside, Tim thought he understood why. Everything there was moving too fast — Mark's lips, Mark as he moved to grab the stake from Brian's hands, and Mark when he walked forward to kill Ariana.

Then there was a white, bright light, and everyone around Tim fell to the ground, knocked out by it. For Tim himself, it left his vision completely obscured for a moments, but he blinked it away, realizing time was normal again. Immediately, without even thinking of how reckless it was, he ran inside to find Mark.

He found him lying on the ground, unconscious as well, forming a very strange picture. It looked as if the light had drained all color from everything in a certain perimeter around Ariana's corpse, which was lying there, completely black, safe for her eyes, that glistened red, even glazed over in death. However, Mark himself seemed to have been affected in reverse. His coat — the coat Tim's mom had given him — that used to be a deep blue, now appeared to hold every color Tim could think of, and his blond hair had a golden shine to them, especially apparent against the colorless floor.

Tim kneeled next to the boy, fearing the worst. However, before he could check for a pulse, he noticed the slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. That was such a relief to Tim that he let out a breath he'd been holding without realizing it, and he lost his balance, catching himself by placing a hand on Mark's shoulder.

The contact seemed to bring him back to consciousness. His eyes opened, unfocused, and he blinked a few times before settling on Tim.

"I'm— I'm alive ?" He sounded very surprised. "Or— ?"

Tim smiled. "You're definitely alive."

"Okay." He breathed deeply, then asked, "Ariana ?"

Tim glanced at her corpse, so close to them — way too close, really. "I don't think she'll hurt anyone anymore. Come on, let's get you out of here."

He wrapped an arm around Mark's shoulders and helped him walk out of the room, where Hugo, Jacob and Emmet had come in after Tim and were taking care of Brian and Jenny.

Mark asked to rest when they were outside, and Tim gladly sat on the floor, against the wall, next to him. As long as they were away from her, he didn't care where they were right now.

"So…" he said. "Don't ever do this again. Play hero, I mean."

Mark sighed. "I had to. It was the only way."

"You _had_ to ? I think you _wanted_ to."

"Maybe. But you can't tell me you didn't want revenge on Ariana too, after what she did to you."

Tim ignored the comment — because he didn't want to agree with Mark on that. "And if you hadn't been extremely lucky, you'd be dead, and then what would revenge have brought you ?" Mark didn't answer, and eventually, Tim simply repeated, "So don't ever do this again. Just… don't."

Mark gave him a puzzled look, and he looked as if he was about to ask Tim what he meant. A bit of repressed frustration took over, and Tim didn't let him, instead drawing closer to Mark and kissing him.

He pulled away almost instantly, shocked by his own boldness, but something changed in Mark's expression as understanding dawned on him.

"Oh" Mark said. Tim bit his lips anxiously, waiting for more. "I— I didn't know."

Tim let out a nervous laugh. _That was kind of the point_. "To be honest, I wasn't completely sure until a couple days ago." Sighing, he forced himself to add, "I'm sorry. I understand if you don't want—"

"No" Mark said. "No, that's not it. I just — I really didn't know. I kind of lack any experience when it comes to that. I—" Mark paused, then said, "You know, it wasn't luck alone that saved me tonight. This," he said, pulling at the now multicolored coat, "played a huge part too."

Tim nodded, although he wasn't sure he understood. "O-kay ?"

"I mean, I think maybe I should stick around you, just in case your mom gets to save my life again." He laughed when he saw the look of confusion on Tim's face. "If you don't mind me, I mean."

Tim choked a small giggle. "Of course not. But— just to be sure— do you really mean—"

His rambling was cut off when Mark tentatively came closer, before pulling him in for another kiss.

* * *

><p>As Anya's team was getting near Dalton, Lynne was hit by a feeling of unknown nature — like a shudder, the instinctive knowledge that something was wrong. It didn't last long, and by the time they reached the school, it had already vanished. However, everyone in the team reported sensing it, and Lynne couldn't think it was a mere coincidence. Something must have happened with Ariana and the team.<p>

Her worries were soon dismissed, however, when Brian called Anya to report Ariana's death. Still, after exchanging a glance with Lynne, the agent told him that Aro and Jane had to be in the area as well, since Aro had been keeping track on Alec's thoughts.

They then deployed in the school, and Anya told Lynne and Jason to follow her straight to the other team, while the others would search the school in two pairs, with the instruction to not engage Aro alone.

They reached the hallway in which Ariana's room was located, which was the theater of much more drama than any of them would have wished for. Mark, Brian and Jenny were all sitting on the floor a few steps away from the room, Tim, Hugo and Jacob taking care of them. Emmet was guarding the door to the room itself, keeping it shut, while Kurt and another student — who Lynne assumed to be Blaine by the description she'd been given of him — were talking to a rapidly growing crowd of students in various stages of undress, probably alerted by the sounds of the fight — unless it was the same feeling Lynne had had.

Anya went to talk with Brian in private for a moment, before assuming charge of the situation. She asked Hugo to evacuate Brian, Jenny and Mark, who looked pretty exhausted. Then, Jason took care of dismissing the crowd, using his authority as a known officer from the local police department to reassure the kids and send them to their room. Lynne decided to take care of Ariana's main victims here — Kurt and Blaine.

"I see you've been keeping them away" she said. "Thank you. For that, and everything else. Did everything go okay ?"

Blaine still had a look of confusion on his face — no one probably had time to explain anything to him yet — but he didn't say anything. Kurt, on the other hand, grimaced and said, "Yes and no. It started out okay, but when we got Blaine out of the room, something went crazy in there. Don't know what, though — it went so fast. Sorry."

"It's all right" Lynne said, forcing a smile on her lips. "You've done enough. I'll just ask them when we can breathe. Right now we have to clean up the mess" — _and make sure the place is safe_, she added mentally — "but you can go now. Explain to Blaine what's happened ; I think he deserves it. But you both need to realize that this has to be kept a secret."

Kurt nodded immediately, and Blaine agreed as well, albeit more reluctantly, before following the other boy to one of their rooms for an explanation.

Lynne went back to Anya, who was finished sending everyone else away. "So… what now ? Aro could be anywhere."

"I wanna look inside first" Anya said. "I couldn't gather many elements as to what happened, and I need to see if Ariana could still pose a threat — her, or what she left behind. Stay outside : there's a good chance Aro will come for his daughter." She then walked inside.

"What if he has come already, and knows she's dead ?" Lynne wondered out loud.

"I feared that too" Emmet answered, still standing in front of the door. "With all that was going on in there, he might have come right past us and I'm not sure we would have noticed. And it's not like he needed to be very close to know she's dead ; the whole school felt it, even if they didn't know what it was."

"Yeah, so did we, and we weren't even _in_ the school" Jason added.

"But if he knows she's dead, what then ?" Lynne said. "Will he just give up and go home ?" She looked at Emmet as she said that — from what she'd gathered, he had worked for the Volturi in the past. He simply shook his head, confirming what she had already guessed.

Her worries were soon confirmed when one of Anya's agent called through the communicator.

"We spotted Aro. We're following him. Seems to be going to the entrance hall. Over."

"Copy that" Lynne immediately answered. "I'm coming. Over." She then turned to the other two. "No offense, Jason, but I want you to watch the door. Emmet's better suited for what's to come."

The red-haired man nodded. "Call if you need help" he said, tapping his own communicator.

"Will do. Let's go."

The entrance hall wasn't very far from them, and it took only a couple minutes to reach it. As they did, however, they saw the large doors in front had been forced open. Emmet ran outside, followed by Lynne — he wasn't going at full speed, but fast enough that she couldn't keep up. Not that she needed to — she didn't want to go hand to hand with a vampire if it wasn't necessary.

When she reached the parking lot, she quickly scanned it — even at this hour, it was lit up — and took in what had happened in a moment. Aro was here, but so was Jane, which was less expected. Lynne glimpsed Brian in the van his team had used to come here, and she supposed Mark and Tim were with him as well, as she wouldn't see them from where she was. Hugo was in front of it, holding out a rifle to keep the vampires away, but the way he leaned against the van indicated he was wounded in some way.

However, the vampires did not seem to care about the man right now, and were both focused on Jenny and Jacob, who were in the middle of the parking lot, isolated from the others. Jenny was on the floor, apparently unconscious.

The agent that had contacted her had arrived just before Emmet and her, and they were spreading on the parking lot, trying to surround the two vampires now that Lynne and Emmet were there.

Aro noticed, however. He decided it was time to attack. Lynne could not even aim before the vampire started running towards Jenny and Jacob. The latter leaped at him, turning into a wolf in midair, but he was cut off in his attack — and it only took his howl of pain for Lynne to understand Jane was responsible. The female vampire was looking at the scene with an air of content, unaware of, or arrogantly ignoring, the others.

_Well, she's going to learn humility_. Lynne considered organizing a crossfire, but feared that she'd hear her use her communicator. Still, she had to act before Aro heard her thoughts and warned Jane. So she started to shoot as quickly as possible, not caring about aim for the moment. Jane, probably used to having her brother block that sort of attack, was caught off-guard, and some of the stakes hit their target. The vampire cast a furious glance at Lynne, but Lynne had had time to renew her dose of vervain on the way to the school, and her ability failed. Jane suddenly realized her situation, and took off, running away into the night.

Lynne turned to Aro. He had almost reached the shocked form of Jacob, when Emmet crashed into him, sending the two flying across the parking lot. The other agent ran in their directions, but Lynne started by checking on Jacob and Jenny — they were both fine, and Jenny was starting to get back to her senses. With the girl following her, she checked on Hugo, who had had a large slash to the flank when Jane had attacked the van. He told her he'd be fine, and to take care of the Volturi first.

Lynne nodded, and she and Jenny hurried to where the vampires were still wrestling. Aro had managed to knock out one of the agents, a man, but the other had taken cover behind a car. However, Emmet was forced to stay close to the other vampire to prevent him from running away — or attacking someone else — which didn't allow for an open line of fire. And since Aro was reading his thoughts, he was having a hard time connecting any of his hits.

Lynne took Jenny to the cover of another car, and asked her "Can you use your magic to do something ?"

Jenny sighed. "Not much. I've practically drained myself with Ariana, and I used up all I had left when they first attacked. If I'd known, I wouldn't have released Louisa and Cassie's powers after we dealt with Ariana."

There was hope in her voice — hope that either of the other witches would come to help — but Lynne wouldn't count on it. If Jenny had been practically drained, it would also be the case of the other two. "It's okay. I'll cover us until you can get something ready."

She raised herself just above the car's trunk, to aim at Aro. The two vampires were still too close, and in the dim light here at the edge of the parking lot, she couldn't risk hitting Emmet. Could she ?

However, her dilemma was soon solved when Aro threw the other vampire away. She fired a couple times, and one of the stakes hit Aro — not in the heart, unfortunately. He ducked out of the other agent's line of fire, then pulled out the stake as if it were a mere annoyance.

By that time, Emmet was back to fight, and Lynne waited for another opportunity. Next to her, Jenny whispered "I'm ready."

"Okay, I'll signal you when you can strike."

It didn't take long for another opportunity to arise. As Emmet threw a punch at the other vampire, he grabbed his arm and bent it long past the point a human arm should bend. Emmet started to cry out in pain, dropping to his knees. Which meant Aro's entire upper body was perfectly clear.

"Now !" Lynne said, and Jenny emerged from behind the car, a stream of fire emerging from her hands.

However, Lynne had forgotten something, which she realized a split second after it was too late. She had counted on her own thoughts being private, but if Aro had been able to deal easily with Emmet and Jacob this way… he could probably hear Jenny's thoughts as well.

Aro still had hold of Emmet's arm, and as he nonchalantly turned towards Lynne and Jenny, a cold smile formed on his lips, before he threw Emmet in their direction. In the spell's direction. When it connected, fire erupted, much closer than Jenny had planned, and a car very close to them exploded. This started a chain reaction, and Lynne barely had the time to grab the witch next to her and jump backwards. The force of the blast hit them, sending them even further backwards — but in a way, as much as it hurt, part of Lynne knew it was for the best, as it pushed them away from the flames.

Lynne gathered all the strength she had left to get back on her feet, but it was already too late. Aro had escaped.

And of Emmet, there was no trace left but ashes.


	16. Chapter 15 — Darkness of the Unknown

At first, nothing seemed to make sense to Jenny. What had just happened — what _she_ had just done — just felt too surreal for her brain to process. However, this numbness couldn't last forever : when the realization hit, Jenny felt herself screaming as she started running out of the parking lot, determined to find Aro and kill him all on her own.

She was already on the street when Jacob caught up with her, regaining his human form and catching her in his arms to stop her. She mindlessly struggled for a few seconds, ignoring the sound of his voice, but adrenaline alone could only get her so far. She stopped fighting, rested her hands on Jacob's shoulder, and let herself cry as he held her tighter.

"I can't believe it, Jay" she managed to say through her sobbing. "It's my fault. It's _all my fault_ !"

"Of course not" Jacob said, his voice soft. "Aro's responsible, not you."

Jenny breathed in deeply, letting the words sink in. "You're right" she said eventually. "He is." She focused on the anger that that sentence stirred, as it helped divert her attention from all the other emotions raging within her.

She tore herself away from Jacob's arms, and finally managed to look him in the eye. She found a pain that seemed to echo her own — even though she knew Jacob was hurting on his own, not just by proxy of her.

A small part of her managed to noticed that he was naked due to just turning back, and to chuckle at that. Thankfully, the street was still empty in the early morning. "Hold on" she said, pulling clothes from her bag — she'd grown used to carry a change of clothes for Jacob whenever she could, as he couldn't do it himself when he turned into a wolf.

As he was getting dressed, Jenny asked, "What do you think we're going to do now ?" She was more wondering aloud than directly asking Jacob, but she was curious to hear his thoughts, too.

"Parere will probably consider the mission to be done, and dismiss her agents" Jacob said matter-of-factly. "She diverted Anya's team specifically for this mission, but they're gonna have to go back to whatever they were doing before."

Jenny nodded — she'd come to similar conclusions. But she couldn't take it. "I can't accept that. I can't just go back home and… what, move on ?"

Jacob raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What would you do ?"

A savage grin formed on Jenny's lips, as an idea came to her mind.

* * *

><p>She had exposed it to Jacob, and he had agreed to it wholeheartedly ; they were united in both their grief and their want for revenge. But they couldn't do it alone, and Jenny waited until the Unit team had cleaned up at Dalton and gone back to the house before she even tried to explain her idea to the others.<p>

They gathered in the living room when she asked her too, faces solemn. Brian, Hugo, Lynne, Curtis, Cassie, Tim, Mark, and Louisa. Anya's team had gone to their own hideout to get some rest before they left for another mission, and Kurt and Blaine were still at their school. _They_ had their chance at happiness, at moving on, but for Jenny, it would have to wait.

Jacob followed her to the center of the room, where she exposed her intentions to her audience all around her.

"I want Aro dead." That part was simple — and obvious — enough but she waited for reactions, which didn't take long to come.

"Jenny, I understand that you're angry…" Hugo said, "but I don't think vengeance will get you anywhere." Next to him, Brian nodded, although reluctantly.

"Really ? Because I found it could be very cathartic" Lynne said. Jenny glanced at her, surprised to have her support, until she remembered that she had killed Edward Cullen herself for what he'd done to her daughter. "But that's besides the point" she added to Jenny's attention. "How do you plan to even find him ?"

Jenny turned to Louisa. "You already know where he's gone, don't you ? He and Jane, they'll go back to safety as soon as they can."

Her mother narrowed her eyes. "Yes. To Rome. Or as you said, to _safety_. As in, out of our reach." She paused. "I can promise you that I will have Aro dead the next time he sticks his head out, but right now, he's probably already gone."

Jenny shook her head. "No. I can't accept that." Letting him live would be like admitting that he wasn't responsible, and that would mean accepting that _she_ was. She couldn't live with that. "I can't accept that, which means I'll have to get him out oh his hiding. Even if it means killing every single Volturi."

"Are you insane ?" Louisa said, but Jenny was more focused on the others' faces. Hugo still looked worried, Brian was fighting hard to keep his own expression neutral. Lynne looked thoughtful, as if she was planning an attack on her own. Curtis looked mostly confused, and Cassie, while shocked, seemed to be as thoughtful as Lynne was. Finally, Mark and Tim exchanged a glance, before nodding at her.

"Maybe" Jenny said calmly. "But I'm determined to see it through. We go to Rome, to their palace — Jacob knows the exact location, he's been there — infiltrate it, blow it up, and if Aro survives to escape, we get him on his way out."

"Assuming you can watch every exit. And you don't know all about them" Louisa said. "But it goes beyond that. I can't get behind such a plan. Regardless of the massive force the Volturi have, this isn't how Unit works. We are not exterminators, we kill vampires that we know are attacking humans on a large scale."

"And the Volturi haven't ?"

"Aro has. So far, it looks like he's acted alone. Trust me, I've wanted the Volturi dead for long, but if you carry out this plan, I'll have my hands tied. Unit will go after you for starting an all-out war with the vampires. Things are bad enough as it is since the fall of the Cullens."

Jenny scoffed. "Bring it. I'm not changing my mind." She turned to the rest of her audience. "So. I've told you what I will do. Who's with me ?"

Cassie was the first to speak. "You say this is what you _will_ do. Are you saying that you'll do it, with or without us ?"

"Yes."

"I see. Then I can't let you run off to get yourself killed all on your own. Tim, you don't need to feel forced to join us—"

"I'll come with you" the boy said. Then, nodding towards Mark, he added, "We both will."

"No hesitation ; I'm in too" Lynne said right afterwards.

"No offense," Curtis said, "but I have a town to watch over. Especially since most of our criminal brigade was killed by this Aro. If you do get him, though, let me know. I'll definitely be pleased."

Jenny nodded. "Of course." She wasn't expecting anyone to agree with her at all — even if she had been hoping for it — so it was good enough. Only Brian and Hugo had remained silent. "What about you ?" she asked.

Hugo still looked mostly worried — even more so after Louisa made the Unit's intent clear. "If anything happens to you," he said, "I won't be able to forgive myself. But I don't see how joining would help. We'd both end up dead. Jenny, are you sure—"

Brian was actually the one to interrupt him. "I think she's right. We should go." Hugo stared at him, but before he could speak, Brian added, "This is an opportunity — sorry, boss. You think Aro is going back to safety, but I think when the leaders of the Volturi learn what he's done, it will sow chaos in their ranks. It would be the perfect time to strike at their heart."

"So you're going ?" Hugo said. "I can't lose you too !"

"Then come with us."

Hugo glanced at Louisa. "I doubt we can blow up their palace without the Unit's support." As the woman stayed silent, he asked, "Can we ?"

Louisa sighed. "You have all the knowledge you need. Jacob knows where you target is. Brian is an expert with explosives and will find the palace's weak points better than anyone. You have two witches that could help you infiltrate the palace unseen. It's not impossible — incredibly dangerous, but not impossible. But this changes nothing about what I've said."

Hugo's expression hardened. "If it is possible, we will see it done. Whether you like it or not. The Volturis, the Cullens… all of them need to go. It's time to prevent these vampires from gaining such power." He turned to Jenny. "Very well. I'm in."

* * *

><p>Brian managed to get his hands on a Unit jet in Columbus, and the enchanted plane landed in Rome the next morning. A part of Jenny wanted to believe that the jet had been left there by Louisa intentionally, but regardless, she remembered the woman's words. She could also not bring herself to care about the threat of the Unit : Louisa had been clear that the Unit would only chase them after the Volturi were dead.<p>

That meant they could take their time without fearing to be stopped by the Unit, too. It didn't take very long for their group to find a place to stay near the Coliseum, and spent most of the day keeping an eye on the area.

Many vampires were coming and going from there — albeit very well-disguised, but they couldn't escape Jacob's or Brian's heightened senses. Following them around, under illusions made by Cassie and Jenny, allowed the two of them to locate several entrances to the palace in the nearby streets, aside from the one Jacob already knew about, in the Coliseum itself. They also overheard conversations, that confirmed Brian's intuition : the Volturi were divided over what they should do about Aro. They did not seem to fear a counterstrike from the Unit, however, which was a good thing for the little group.

Simultaneously, Mark, Tim and Hugo had made research on the palace's infrastructure. It seemed impossible that there would be no record of an underground running under Rome, and, in fact, there was — although there was a lot of speculation as to what it was for, the most popular explanation being that it used to belong to the sewers. No one seemed to know that it served as a base to vampires, but Jenny had been expecting that.

Their findings helped Cassie and Jenny cast a delving spell ; the two combined, along with Brian and Jacob's observations, helped them build a three-dimensional map of the place. They ate dinner as Brian studied it, determining its weak points and how to strike at them in the most efficient way. As night fell, their plan was as well thought-out as could be without actually entering the palace, and they decided to jump to action immediately.

The team split in two: Brian, Hugo and Jacob accompanied Jenny, while Lynne, Tim and Mark went with Cassie. The two witches would have to ensure they went unnoticed as they spread out to different secondary entrances to the palace. Since coordination would be necessary to their task, the team all wore communicators taken from the Unit's supplies.

Jenny's team made their way to the Roman Forum, where one of these entrances was located among the ruins. They had to wait that a group of tourist passed them by, then opened the door and descended into the darkness.

Soon, they reached the upper floor of the palace, signaled to them by light coming from below. From Hugo's research, they knew that the palace spread out in concentric circles from that room, with four hallways joining them like the spokes of a gigantic wheel. They were in one of these hallways, and while it was currently empty, there would likely be patrols guarding it.

Following Brian, their group found another staircase going deeper in the palace, to one of its lower levels. Brian went down, with the mission to take out any isolated guard he found with a plain wooden stake and to install explosives there — as it was too risky for Jacob or Hugo to go, as their scent would more difficult for Jenny to hide from vampires than Brian's hybrid scent, especially from a certain distance.

As Brian was progressing below them, checking every minute through his communicator, Hugo installed the first set of bombs in the few rooms around the hallway. Then, the three of them followed the hallway to the most outer circle, and followed it for a while. They had speculated that it would be less guarded, being further from the throne room, and were proven right ; there weren't even many rooms along the corridor.

When they entered one of those to place explosives, Jenny understood why there weren't many of them. It was huge : in Jacob's own words, as large as the throne room itself. It was a bedroom, as indicated by the large bed near the entrance, but there was much more to it than that. The space was divided into several sections, and the ones Jenny passed by had a dining room — which she tried not to think too hard about — with a large dance floor next to it, and in the next section, a swimming pool. That was their location : the pool was currently empty, and Jenny dug at the bottom of it with a quick spell, allowing Hugo to place a charge there, on a water pipe.

As they left the apartments — there was no other way to call such a huge bedroom — the trio met their first threat : two vampires, one male, one female. The two of them weren't guards, judging by the look of them, and by the fact that they were startled in the middle of a kiss by the group. However, Jenny lost no time to let them alert anyone : she bound them with Air, and let Jacob dispose of them with two incendiary shots.

She did not even bat an eye as they died, although she did prevent the sound from echoing down the hallway, lest they attract attention. After the couple was reduced to ashes, she urged her companions forwards.

They soon reached the next radial hallway, which was more heavily guarded. Jenny manipulated the light and sound in it to hide them from the further guards, but she could do nothing to stop them from being completely seen by the six guards between them and the staircase, from which Brian would be emerging soon. Hugo sniped the closest pair from where they were hiding, around the corner ; however, the rest of the were immediately alerted.

Jenny immediately formed a barrier to force them all to do their way, as Jacob turned into a wolf and Hugo shot to cover him as he ran down the hallway. Hugo didn't kill any of them, as he aimed only to shoot fast and render their movement more difficult, not to kill. He did hit the closest vampires in non-lethal spots, but that gave Jacob a good opportunity, and soon, one of them was torn apart by the wolf's fangs.

The other guards had caught up by then, forcing Jenny to drain more of her power to support Jacob. She couldn't cast lethal spells when he was in close combat — she'd learned _that_ lesson the hard way. Instead, she hit the vampires with precision strikes to unbalance them and hinder their movements. Through that collaboration, the vampires fell, one by one, and Jenny used an incendiary device to burn their corpses.

As Jenny signaled to Brian that the way was clear from up there, Hugo started to install the last few charges. As he did, Brian appeared from the staircase going down, covered in ashes and bleeding from the side. Jenny could only afford to heal his would partially for the time, but she did it anyway. Checking in with the others, the group heard from Tim that they were nearly done placing their own charges, so Jenny decided it was time to leave.

The staircase in that hallway brought them somewhere between the Coliseum and the empty field that used to be the Circus Maximus. This meant they'd have an easy time joining the rendezvous point — the Coliseum itself — as it was clearly visible, and reachable via a large road. Jenny knew the other group would have to make their ways through smaller streets, as the other exit led to a residential area. That was fine with her : she'd get to clear up the Coliseum herself.

As their team reached it, Brian detonated the first series of charges, which would block the secondary entrances. Anyone who would try to leave the palace would have to do so from the Coliseum now, and Jenny was ready for them. She had considered detonating them sooner, but that meant giving the Volturi more time to react, and the surprise element was their only advantage. They could only hope that enough vampires would be trapped in the palace.

Once they infiltrated the Coliseum, Jenny allowed her to finally let go of the illusions dissimulating her group, sighing as she did. Still, she was far from exhaustion, and more than ready to get her revenge.

The first vampires — a group of Volturi guards — emerged from the palace's entrance as Lynne told her through their communicators that they were in view of the Coliseum. The guards noticed Jenny, who was sitting on a crushed above the entrance, as if she was a lost tourist who was enjoying the warm spring night.

Two of them jumped straight at her, but were caught in mid-air by Jacob, back in wolf form, who had killed one of them before they even landed. Jenny burned two more of the guards before they could even move, and the rest were brought down by Brian and Hugo, shooting from an ambushed position.

By the time the guards were all dead, Lynne's group arrived, and Brian detonated the rest of the charges. Even though the palace was very deep, they felt the shockwave up to the surface, agitating the Coliseum. Brian had calculated his charges to destroy the lower floor, but the not the upper one — that would destroy a large section of the city above it, too. Instead, individual rooms collapsed, but the overall structure still stood : however, the charge that Hugo had placed on one of the pipes — and a couple more placed on the other side of the palace and on the lower level — spread incendiary liquid through most of the palace, killing any vampire that would stand within spraying reach.

That only left the vampires who would be in the throne room, and who would come out sooner or later, when they figured out their vanguard was not coming back. And indeed, soon, more were coming. However, they were pushed forward by the flames downstairs, forced to leave through a small exit, that allowed Jenny's team to take out dozens of them before they could make more than a few steps outside of the palace.

Eventually, most of their group started to run out of ammunition, and let some of the vampires come out for Brian and Jacob to take on in hand-to-hand combat, with Jenny's help, while Cassie was still watching the palace's entrance.

Cassie, in fact, was the one to call off the shooters' assault when a spell was placed over the entrance. When Jenny managed to glance at it, she analyzed it easily : it was a protective bubble, reflecting any projectiles thrown at it. The spell was very strong, but most importantly, Jenny wondered about its origin.

She didn't have to wonder for very long : one last dozen vampires emerged, and the witch was among them ; she was a fair-haired vampire, with a regal aspect. Jenny noticed she was holding the power of two other witches, who were still human, and were bound by two guards. Aside from them, there were four more vampires. One was a gorgeous man with golden hair, while another looked older, in spite of the vampire's eternal youth. As for the other two, Jenny knew them well : they were her targets. Aro and Jane.

She fired a spell at the group of vampires, but it was absorbed by the bubble, and the vampire witch laughed.

"Good try" she said.

Brian, next to Jenny, recognized her. "You're Sulpicia. One of the leaders. Parere thought you'd burned out your own power."

"Oh, but I did, mostly. But I can still wield other witches' powers if they let me. Willingly — or not."

"If you're Sulpicia, that means you two must be Nickalas and Ralph" Jenny said to the other two vampires. "The perfect opportunity to behead the Volturi" she added, grinning ferociously.

The rest of Jenny's group spread out, circling the vampires. Cassie came to stand near her. "There are only two witches in terms of raw power. I'll let you use mine, you should be able to overpower them."

Jenny nodded, and felt the extra rush of power as Cassie let her draw within her strength. "Get ready," she whispered in her communicator, "I'll bring this barrier down. Take them out — the leaders first. And don't let Aro escape."

Sulpicia was still waiting patiently, but she must have seen that Jenny and Cassie had combined their power. Jenny analyzed the spell that protected her enemies, and couldn't find a flaw in it. Her only idea was to use pure, raw power against it, so she raised a hand, and a bolt of pure energy erupted from it, crashing against the bubble in a continuous stream.

The bubble didn't break as Jenny had hoped, but she held on to the spell, and managed to make the bubble move as the witches inside grew weaker. Sulpicia had not treated her prisoners very well, as one soon collapsed from exhaustion ; from that point, the bubble started to become smaller and smaller, and as it stopped covering the vampires, the battle started.

Jane tried to use her ability to paralyze the group as she'd done the day before ; but this time, they were loaded up on vervain, and she died moments later under Jacob's fangs. The few guards that accompanied the leaders died soon under Lynne's, Hugo's, Mark's and Tim's fire, leaving only Sulpicia and the last witch under their bubble, and Nickalas, Ralph and Aro fighting Brian and Jacob.

The three vampires should have been able to overpower the two easily, but something was going wrong for them, which Jenny could not place, focused as she was on her struggle with Sulpicia.

That one didn't last much longer : as the bubble was nearly getting too small to protect her, Sulpicia's expression changed for the first time. Fear appeared on her face, as if out of nowhere, and she formed another spell, a very intricate spell that Jenny didn't know. Fearing the worst, Jenny let go of her attack and prepared herself to counter it, but before she could do anything, Sulpicia had vanished. The second witch collapsed, and the bubble vanished.

Jenny released Cassie's power and turned her attention to the melee, where she finally figured out what was preventing the vampires to win : Nickalas and Ralph seemed as overconfident as Sulpicia had been. They didn't consider the team a threat, and instead of trying to kill their opponents, they were throwing each other in the way of Brian and Jacob. Only Aro seemed to genuinely be fighting for his life, but Ralph was also trying to get him killed.

Jenny wondered what had caused such a backstabbing behavior, but decided her curiosity would have to be unsatisfied, as she supported Brian and Jacob the way she had before, with little spells to destabilize the vampires. Cassie joined in as well, and together, they helped Brian kill Nickalas and Ralph.

Only Aro was left, whom Cassie bound with Air. Unable to fight back, he looked terrified as Jenny walked towards him, as Brian turned towards her expectantly.

A part of Jenny wished she didn't have it in her to kill Aro. Maybe she should do like in the movies, be merciful, be the better person. But that part of her was completely powerless compared to her anger. So she formed the spell, and flames started to creep up Aro's limbs, devouring him slowly — and painfully.

His screams resonated through the night, but Jenny could have cared less if someone heard them. It was just too satisfying right now.


	17. Epilogue — Hand in Hand

Louisa was back in her office, in Washington, D.C., wearing a dress from the Florentine Renaissance as she always did in this sanctuary of hers. This was the first time she had come back to this place — the closes she had to a home — since she had first left for Forks. Even she had not been able to guess all the consequences of leaving to go there, and yet it was now time to face them.

Even as she was warning Jenny of what the Unit would do if they carried on with their plan to kill the entire Volturi coven, she already knew she would do her best to give them a head start when they succeeded. She hadn't even doubted their ability to succeed — and while she didn't agree with what they had done, she still considered them her friends, and for some, her family.

So she had done her best to keep her own Unit in the dark. Not completely, of course — that would have been impossible — but she kept each individual reports to herself, instead of sharing them with her lieutenants. This gained her a full three days before they came to her. All seven of them had found out, one way or another, and they had called for an emergency gathering.

"Is it true ?" one of them, Agent Nauta, asked. "The Volturi died at the hands of some of our own agents, along with _amateurs_ ?" He was a haughty man, the recently-promoted replacement of Lux, who still believed Unit to be superior to regular people.

_Another one who doesn't get the point of the Unit_. She had missed that point for a while, too. Protecting humans couldn't be done without being human. But even as she had come to realize it when going back to the town of her childhood, she'd been forced to keep acting cold-hearted. She wondered if she could find the balance, someday.

"It is. Nickalas and Ralph Volturi are dead, as well as a large majority of their forces. Sulpicia escaped, however, and was last seen in Slovenia."

"How could you leave us in the dark about this, Parere ?" another lieutenant, Agent Spes, asked. She was Louisa's very first lieutenant, and the betrayal on her face reflected that.

"I did not endorse this mission" she answered, choosing her wording carefully to avoid revealing she knew of it. "They acted on their own accord, led by one of the… how did you call them? Amateurs."

"Good riddance." Agent Cupere was a young man — barely out of his teenage years. Since half of the agents present were hybrids, he did not look out of place, but he was still more brash than any of them.

"Are you an idiot ?" Spes asked. "The Volturi may have been monsters, but they were keeping things _stable_. Now all the vampires in Europe are going to do as they please, just like the ones here !"

"At least we don't have to worry about them trying to seize control of North America anymore." The man, Agent Arcus, was a man Louisa appreciated.

"What about the big covens on the other continents ?" Nauta asked.

Parere shook her head. "Asia, South America and Oceania are still divided enough that they won't be able to use the opportunity. The only ones who could expand in Europe or here are the Ennead from Egypt — they hold a strong hand over Africa — but they never broke their truce with us."

"For now." Nauta retorted.

"If they do pose a problem, we will see to it. But remember this, all of you : this is also an opportunity for us. We can subjugate those covens, make them agree to respect our rules. To respect humanity."

"But we're not the only ones who will" a woman, Agent Scire, said. "What about the Organization ?"

"Since their leader's death in November," Arcus said, "we've had no report of them. I don't know if that's good or bad news, but I'm hoping for the best."

"That's all fine, Parere, but I think you're trying to divert our attention from something" Spes said. "We can't leave people who killed an entire coven running around like it's nothing."

"We should give them a medal, you mean" Cupere said — but he was met with six condescending looks.

"As much as I agree with that sentiment on an emotional level," Parere said, "you are right, Spes." Taking in a deep breath, she then pronounced the words she had dreaded. "Former agent Ardere, former agent in training Jacob Black, and their associates, Hugo Smith, Lynne Epieu, Jenny Donna, Mark Thorn, and Cassie and Tim Chey, must be declared our enemies. They will have to be captured by any team who finds them, and brought to us. _Alive_" she added, insisting on that last word.

Cupere scoffed, but the others marked their approbation uniformly.

_I bought you as much time as I could_, Louisa thought. _But now it's over. Stay safe, all of you. And be careful._


	18. Author's note

Hello there!

Since I've revived this account, it's time I catch up on some of the stories I've posted. And for all of you who read _Brooding Impostor_, you'll be interested to know that I'm now publishing its sequel—third installment in the _Brooding Series_. It's called _Brooding Brothers_, and I hope you'll check it out.

Thanks all for reading!


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